Adding Newfoundland parishes as standardized place names?

Kimberly Ryan_2

I have been trying to improve some of the indexing for the northern Bonavista Bay region of Newfoundland. It's complicated by the re-use of the same or similar names for different regions and concepts. One problem is that many older records are based on a parish system that doesn't translate well to currently available standardized place names.

For example, a large number of event records are incorrectly recorded as happening in Bonavista (option a below). However, depending on context, this could mean:

(a) the community of Bonavista in the southern portion of Bonavista Bay,

(b) the parish of Bonavista (Church of England) which includes the town of Bonavista and surrounding communities (boundaries varying over time),

(c) the parish of Bonavista (Methodist) which includes the town of Bonavista and surrounding communities (as option b above but with different boundaries and time periods),

(d) the region of Bonavista Bay, which includes several parishes, including Greenspond parishes** (both Church of England and Methodist),

(e) the census district of Bonavista (1935 and earlier), equivalent to option d,

(f) the census district of Bonavista North (1945 and later), the northern part of Bonavista Bay,

(g) the census district of Bonavista South (1945 and later), the southern part of Bonavista Bay.

The same confusion repeats for Greenspond (the town vs. the parishes).

Some records would more properly be labelled with the appropriate parish. Labelling them with the town of the same name as the parish may confuse people researching their ancestors when later records (marriage, death, census) show apparently different birth places. For example, a person who is baptised in Greenspond parish is recorded as born in the town of Greenspond, but later records show they were born on Fair Island.

The other alternative is going up a level and using Bonavista Bay. This is really not ideal, because the region is too large. I believe the parishes should be included in the standardized place names for accuracy when specific communities are not recorded.

** This is my pet peeve. Large numbers of the Greenspond parish records are indexed as Bonavista.

Teeples Jeanine Cardon1

Kimberly, it took a lot of work to get things straightened out, but I believe I've given you what you've asked for. It is admittedly confusing when places are given the same name, but I hope this will help you keep things straight while you're indexing. Let me know if you need more help.