One useful feature I've found with similar problems with my German ancestor's locations, is to record the Lat Long of the location. This is the only unambiguous reference to it that I can think of. Geo is useful for determining this for modern places, and the Lat Long allows you to ensure consistency (provided you allow for the changes that occurred in the location of the prime meridian over time - groaaaan!). I've elected to record the location using the name at the time of the event with the correct modern Lat Long against that location, and the modern name in the Location notes. This is not ideal, as there is no easy way to sort locations by Lat Long that I am aware of, so you can find the different names of the same place. Legacy really needs a proper AKA facility for Locations.

Cheers,
Rob

----- Original Message ----- From: "Rich from LA CA" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Saturday, November 27, 2004 8:31 AM
Subject: Re: [LegacyUG] Pre 1776 Locations in US



There is no PROPER way, but 2 schools of thought. Use the current location name,
and put in location note the previous names. The other is to use name at the time
of event. This means some locations may be listed 6 -10 times. In the location
notes you would put current name. Each of these will work, but are both also an AKA
bandaid. Consistancy is the most important. For example, when I started my British
places in the 1970's, the atlases reflected historic counties. Some recent brands still
show the traditional and some older ones show the 'megacounties'. If I am staying,
about half the countries in europe, before or because of EU, have consolidated parish
level locations to larger area 'bigparishes'.
Choose to go with the location as was at time, you have multiples for the same place.
Choose to use current, you must keep up with changes.
The third choice, (I forgot to put at top), is the LDS/IGI system where they chose to set
a date for each region, then freeze the locations to that. Each region will have a different
date. There is a pub by them explaining it.
Rich in LA CA


-----Original Message-----
From: "John R. Bayle" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Nov 24, 2004 1:21 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: [LegacyUG] Pre 1776 Locations in US

Matt asked,

What is the Proper way to list a location in Colonial America?  If the
location still exists today the GeoDatabase will attach ,USA to the end of
the location.  Also, many towns were located in districts, and the
Geodatabase will say there never was a county by the name of 96th District
(for example) in the state (which there were no states prior to 1776, they
were colonies).
By the way, when were they actually declared as states, since the US
constitution dates to 1796, afte the Articles of Confederation

This question or one very similar comes up from time to time on various genealogy lists. Between 1783 and 1796, you could say that the "states" were in fact countries. They were bound by a treaty known as the Articles of Confederation, but they each did things that today we think of as perogatives of a nation, such as print money. Before 1783 they were colonies of England, so I suppose someone born in Boston Mass in 1778 would have been born in the country of England.

I have people in my database with events in D�troit Qu�bec and
even in Mobile Qu�bec, (now Alabama) since at one time all that
territory was part of Qu�bec.

So to me the proper way to record an event is under the various
jurisdictions that were in effect at that time.  If you feel this is
ambiguous/confusing, I'd recommend using the notes to clarify
things.
                                                         jr

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