Should the religion be part of the location for baptism/christening/marriage records
I'm attaching records from france and germany. Oftentimes, the religion is included in the location of the event:
Example: Evangelisch,Dinker,Westfalen,Prussia
If the location included the NAME of the church, then yes, it should be included. But with these kinds of locations, the only valid location is Dinker,Westfalen,Prussia. I don't want to lose the information. Should it be included in a separate religion tag? Or enter it as "Evangelisch" plus the normalized location? Any suggestions as to the "proper" answer would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!!!
Answers
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My usual practice is to make sure the denomination is in the source title, but to only name the village in the location field for the event, because in the places my family lived, only cities ever had more than one church per denomination. Thus, if I put "Bana, Komárom, Hungary" for the event place, and the attached source is titled "István Molnár, Hungary Reformed Church Christenings", then I can tell exactly which building was the location. (Often, I don't even need to worry about what the source title does or doesn't say, because many places only had one church, total: for example, if a baptism was in Gömörpanyit, then it was in the Lutheran church [and my 3ggf may have officiated].)
If a place had more than one church of the same denomination, then chances are that they'll have names, and (as you said) those can be entered in the location field, if you want. Named churches are often in the Places database, although you can enter them even if they aren't.
I haven't checked Meyer, but based on the use of the bare "Evangelisch", it seems likely that your example is of the "single church of that denomination" variety, and I wouldn't (personally) bother with putting it in the location field. (Although you could, same as I did with Szent Teréz in Szabadka.)
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