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Archiver > TMG > 2000-02 > 0950298280


From: Michael Willis Freeland <>
Subject: Re: TMG-L: Place Names...Yet Again
Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2000 14:44:40 -0500


Where I know that a record is for that part of the predecessor County
that later became a different County, I enter the county place name as
follows:

Culpeper County (part that later became Rappahannock County)

What is most important to me is to use place names that will allow later
reearchers to start in the right courthouse.

Michael

Bud Dorr wrote:
>
> The more I think about this (a big mistake, I'm afraid!) the murkier the place
> name question becomes. Let me give a few examples.
>
> I have several hundred ancestors born in the State of Maine. Maine became a
> state in 1820; before then it was part of Massachusetts. Do I change everything
> prior to 1820 to Massachusetts? It just sounds silly, yet I realize that most
> records for those locations before 1820 are stored in Massachusetts. There are
> 49 other states. What have more experienced users done?
>
> Do all locations before 1781 (when the US gained its independence from Great
> Britain - Yorktown) state the country as Great Britain? Or was it United Kingdom
> back then?
>
> What happens when another county is carved from a pre-existing one?
>
> It seems that the easiest course would be (as Lee has stated before, I think) to
> assiduously determine what the political structure was at the time and use those
> place names. At least there is an iron-clad rule that is understandable. Thus
> everything in America prior to 1781 would take place in Great Britain. So what
> was our political name before then, The Colonies? Following this rule will
> result in some very unexpected designations, I'm afraid.
>
> Confused in Casco,
>
> Bud Dorr
>
> P.S. I think I'm going to cram Parish of Uig, Isle of Lewis, Ross & Cromarty
> County into the County location.
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