On 14 Apr 2017 at 10:35, [email protected] wrote:
> A few months ago I sent a suggestion to Legacy for the ability to add a number
> of name variations for locations, instead of only a short version. I have
> diverse ancestry from different parts of Europe where it is very common for
> the same location to have been under various countries or empires through
> history. Genealogists are supposed to use the location name as it was at the
> time of the event. You also learn a little more about the lives of ancestors
> if you know whether they lived under the Russian and /or Austrian Empires and
> /or Napoleon Bonaparte´s empire etc. Geo location can distract family
> historians from researching the actual borders of the time, finding
> interesting information and factors causing ancestors to emigrate etc.
Yes, I try, where possible, to do that, but FamilySearch seems to want to use
the current name of a place, regardless of when the event took place. And it
sometimes has standardised on completely inaccurate place names, and suggests
"standard" names that would mean that a place would have to be in two or more
different places, none of them within 500 miles of where it actually is.
The German ones are particularly difficult, and, being unaware of all the
historical nuances, I usually enter things like "Woddow, Brandenburg,
Ueckermark, Prussia" even for periods when I'm not sure how accurate it is.
It does, however, mean that in Legacy, one can had 3-4 different place name
entries for the same physical location.
For example, I have
Johannesburg, Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (short form ZAR)
Johannesburg, Transvaal
Johannesburg, Transvaal, South Africa (short form RSA)
Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa.
and there was even a period when Gauteng was known as PWV
FamilySearch now wants to tack "United Kingdom" on to places in England,
Scotland and Wales, at the very time when the Brexit vote makes it uncertain
hoe long the UK will last, and it wants that name for periods even before the
United Kingdom was formed.
I'm reminded of the book which features Lewis Carroll's Cheshire cat from
"Alice in Wonderland", only it introduces itself as "the Unitary Authority of
Warrington Cat".
Of course one can always record a history of the changes of name and
jurisdiction in the location notes, and perhaps that is the way to go.
>
> I admit however, it can get very complicated. I am the only family historian
> or genealogist that I know of who is "nutty" enough to attempt using
> accurate location names for the extremely complex territories of the German
> Holy Roman Empire- I think Family Search only uses locations as they were
> after the 1815 Congress of Vienna which made enormous changes to borders
> throughout Europe.
>
> You can however be rewarded with very fascinating stories e.g. I have
> ancestors who lived in a culturally German district which was a tiny French
> exclave which had been geographically located within a bigger exclave of the
> Duchy of Lorraine. These ancestors emigrated to a corner of "Poland" which
> had been taken by the Austrian Empire. They, with other German families
> established their own colony/settlement. This region then fell to Napoleon,
> becoming part of the Duchy of Warsaw. It then went to the Russian Empire
> ("Russian Poland"). All this in one ancestor´s lifetime! Other branches
> of my family tree also have fascinating stories relating to locations.
>
> Researching locations takes time so I mostly research my direct ancestors and
> sometimes their siblings, rather than spending time finding thousands of
> distant cousins which to me seems pointless and much less interesting.
>
> John
>
--
Steve Hayes
E-mail: [email protected]
Blog: http://khanya.wordpress.com
Web: http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm
Phone: 083-342-3563 or 012-333-6727
Fax: 086-548-2525
--
LegacyUserGroup mailing list
[email protected]
To manage your subscription and unsubscribe
http://legacyusers.com/mailman/listinfo/legacyusergroup_legacyusers.com
Archives at:
http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
