The reason to have an alternate location list is so that whatever location name you have found/use for a particular location, it will link to the same physical place on the earth just as having an alternate name list will link to the same individual.
So, however many name changes, county changes, country changes, et alia, they can all be the location index and clicking on any of them will take you the that particular place on the Earth. Anytime you find a particular location spelled differently, in a different county or country, it doesn't matter as long as you have that particular iteration of the location listed in the location index. With an alternative location index, you will always know that X location in 1300 was referred to as X and was in A county and B country, but was later referred to as Y in 1500 and was in A county and C country, ad infinitum. Documents refer to the same location with myriad spellings. Alsace used to be German...then French...then German. Do you list is as Alsace, Germany, HRE, Prussia, France, etc. You can enter whichever is correct for the time period of the individual as long as you have an alternative location. It will lick to the same spot on your map, AND you will be able to trace how its "ownership" changed. CE ________________________________ From: LegacyUserGroup <[email protected]> on behalf of [email protected] <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, April 14, 2017 4:23 PM To: Legacy User Group Subject: Re: [LegacyUG] speaking of location names I have been using several different place name entries for the same physical location. This is OK for me but makes it difficult to exchange information with other researchers, in charts or reports, because they would be confused by location names I use. Even Germans do not attempt to use names as they were during the German Holy Roman Empire. Many do not even use place names used by the FamilySearch location standardiser. This is why I would like to expand the Legacy option which allows selection of Short Location Names, to also allow selection of other name variations. Before sending reports to others, I could select a more contemporary location name e.g. instead of using: Püttlingen, Kriechingen, Wied-Runkel, German HRE [1776 to 1788], I could select: Püttlingen, Saarland, Germany. While writing my family history book, I included explanations of location name variations and the geopolitical implications. I use Genelines timeline software a lot. I research the histories of their towns, counties, provinces etc. and add the events to Genelines. First, it helps me to get my head around their histories. Second, I can include Genelines individual’s charts in my book to complement my narrative, to help readers understand the context of ancestors’ lives. European locations can have very complex and fluid histories, especially during the German HRE. Even if I have few errors in how a specific time period relates to a specific town, or county, or province etc., my location names still appear to be more specific/accurate than they are any other family trees I have seen. John -----Original Message----- From: Steve Hayes Sent: Friday, April 14, 2017 3:36 PM To: Legacy User Group Subject: Re: [LegacyUG] speaking of location names 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 Steve Hayes - personal links<http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm> www.khanya.org.za Steve Hayes of Tshwane, South Africa. 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