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Archiver > WHITNEY > 2001-02 > 0981935582


From: "R. Kyser" <>
Subject: Re: [WHITNEY-L] Long Island
Date: Sun, 11 Feb 2001 17:53:02 -0600


Jeanne--


Long Island is solely a geographic, never a political, entity, just like
Cape Cod, the Florida Keys, the Upper Peninsula, etc. So you can solve your
problem by deciding whether you'd put the geographic name in the particular
space, or just the political.
Long Islanders-- unlike Cape Codders and "Yoopers"-- have long confused
everyone else by throwing in the "L.I." where it doesn't belong, as if it
were a county, a state or medical waste. (They also "liaise" the name in
the French style, so it comes out "Lawn Gisland". I'm glad I got out before
the accent set!)

From 1683 to 1897, there were three counties on the Island, Kings, Queens
and Suffolk. Kings (coterminous with the borough of Brooklyn) and Suffolk
have not changed.
On Jan. 1, 1898, the old Queens split in two. The western portion remained
Queens County and was absorbed with Kings into the City of New York. The
eastern portion became the newly erected Nassau County. For us
genealogists, it's just another case of the "new county blues".

Long Island City is a neighborhood of Queens, like Astoria, Jamaica,
Flushing, Forest Hills, Ridgewood, etc. There are (or were) a number of
businesses there which use
it as an address, so you tend to see it in ads. This county history may be
why nothing is mailed to "Queens, NY 11XXX", but always to "Neighborhood, NY
11XXX"

They don't do this in Brooklyn-- but that was a real city!

Cheers,
Ron Kyser

-----Original Message-----
From: Jeanne Muse <>
To: <>
Date: Saturday, February 10, 2001 5:36 PM
Subject: [WHITNEY-L] Long Island


>This is one for our New York residents because this southern gal can't
>get it straight. Long Island is a city and the name of the 'arm' that
>stretches out from the 'mainland' New York. Am I right so far?
>
>How should I enter a place that Phoenix calls, for instance, Flushing,
>L. I. ? (There are many more towns he lists this way; Flushing is just
>one example.) Flushing is in Queens County, New York -- correct? So --
>where should one enter Long Island? Or, was Long Island a county in the
>late 1800s?
>
>I could put it in the 'memo' section - but it would print out -
>Flushing, Queens Co., New York, Long Island. If I put it in the
>'detail' section, it will print - Long Island, Flushing, Queens Co., New
>York. Long Island is not a separate state, but I guess I could enter
>the state name as Long Island, New York. It would then print out -
>Flushing, Queens Co., Long Island, New York. None of them seem right.
>
>Any suggestions?
>
>Jeanne
>


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