correcting records with the wrong county in iowa

SUSANGREEN53

Finding multiple entries with the wrong county attributed to common names of townships in Iowa, such as Lincoln, Liberty and Waterford

Gail Swihart Watson

Many Iowa counties appear to have a Lincoln Township; Iowa County, Polk County, Scott County, Monroe County and Wright County, all counties in Iowa. Liberty Townships are found in Clinton County, Buchanan County and Jefferson county, all counties in Iowa. Waterford Townships are in Clinton County and Clay County, again, both in Iowa.

Unfortunately the township stuff is extremely annoying. I have been there and doing that myself. (grammatical error intentional to show my annoyance is ongoing) Apparently you are bumping into it, too.

Áine Ní Donnghaile

@SUSANGREEN53 If the records you are noticing have 2 locations, one with the label Event Place (Original), then that is likely a placename standardization issue.

Can you supply a URL and/or screenshot of one of the records, please?

SUSANGREEN53

Thank you for your reply, looking at John Jens Andersen https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVMN-VVF4 he died in Lincoln Township Clinton County Iowa. I'm working off of the 1900 death records in Clinton County Iowa, and have found several townships attributed to a different county. Is this something I can correct? Susan

Maile L

I could not find any township named Lincoln in Clinton County, which could explain why Lincoln was assigned to Tama County. I did find a Springdale Cemetery in Clinton, Iowa. https://www.familysearch.org/research/places/?pagenum=1&pagesize=100&reqParents=394086&reqParentsLabel=Clinton,%20Iowa,%20United%20States&reqParentsType=209&reqTypeLabel=Cemetery&reqTypes=20&focusedId=4091743 and a grave memorial for the boy with the surname spelled Andresen https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/5772948/john-jens-andresen

SUSANGREEN53

There was a Lincoln Township at the turn of the century, and I'm looking at records from the 1900 death records for Clinton County. I would still like to attribute them to the township that was correct at the time. Thank you, Susan Green

Gail Swihart Watson

@susangreen53 There is a trend world wide to have records in collections according to the current political place names. When looking at other countries, this is a no-brainer decision. For example, many records created during the period of the Russian Empire are housed in Ukraine for those localities that are now part of Ukraine. Even in United States collections, many brand new researchers do not know how wibbley wobbley state and county lines were as time went on. Kentucky was once part of Virginia, and technically, all records created prior to 1 June 1792 should be found only in Virginia collections. Many records are, but many are not. Take a look at this marriage record found in a collection of Kentucky marriages: Kentucky, County Marriages, 1797-1954; https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L93Y-46M1?cc=1804888&wc=QD3Q-H9M%3A1589735625. Read carefully on lines 3 and 4; it was issued by the Commonwealth of Virginia. Lest you think this is a mistake by FamilySearch, below is a screen shot of the exact same marriage record in Ancestry, also housed in a Kentucky marriage collection.

It just makes it easier all around for novice researchers who only know that Woodford county is Kentucky and don't know that it existed long before that as a county in Virginia.

So when researching your Iowa records, you need to keep in mind that county collections may contain records for that location which pre-date the creation of the county (and even state). They may not, but they may.