Home› Welcome to the FamilySearch Community!› Ask a Question› Get Involved/Indexing

Is Co short for county and I should drop it

Lisa Kay Horlacher
Lisa Kay Horlacher ✭✭✭
July 3, 2023 edited September 30, 2024 in Get Involved/Indexing

NY Naturalization Records. On image 1 the birth places of the primary and spouse are Co Longford, Ireland and Co Sligo, Ireland, respectively. I'm just curious if this is short for county and I should drop it, or index/review it as it is written.

https://www.familysearch.org/indexing/batch/a2d8dde3-1326-4ea8-9fae-c80c223197a1

0

Answers

  • barbaragailsmith1
    barbaragailsmith1 ✭✭✭✭✭
    July 3, 2023

    It does stand for county and we drop "County" (or the abbreviation for it).

    0
  • John Curran
    John Curran ✭✭✭
    September 25, 2023

    @barbaragailsmith1 @Lisa Kay Horlacher

    I would object most strongly to dropping the Co. (note the .) or dropping the word County.

    The common use in Ireland is to write and say an address as County Antrim, County Cork, or Co. Antrim, Co. Cork.

    Using the name of the County without the prefix Co. or County also adds confusion, as the main Town of the County is frequently the same name as the County. Thus we have a County Antrim and within that County the principal town is the Town of Antrim.

    2
  • Julia Szent-Györgyi
    Julia Szent-Györgyi ✭✭✭✭✭
    September 25, 2023

    I agree with @John Curran that dropping the designator is a Bad Idea -- anywhere, not just in Ireland, and not just for counties. It's only in usages where context identifies the jurisdiction level, such as a full address, that the "county" or "district" or similar label can be safely dropped. If the naturalization record says "Co Longford, Ireland", then please index it as "Co Longford, Ireland", because it's not the same thing as "Longford, Ireland". (The latter has 16 matches in FS's Places database. Only one of them is the county.)

    3
  • Adrian Bruce1
    Adrian Bruce1 ✭✭✭✭✭
    September 25, 2023

    This isn't just about what genealogists do - it's what the vast majority of people do in everyday life.

    Because just about every Irish county has the same name as its county town, people refer to the place as "County XYZ" until the context is clear. That's absolutely how people talk in real life. In England, Wales and Scotland, there is only one such duplication but the result is the same - we talk about "County Durham" until the context is clear.

    1
  • Melissa S Himes
    Melissa S Himes ✭✭✭✭✭
    September 28, 2023

    The general indexing guidelines could be applied in this case:

    Do not include identifying descriptions or terms, such as “near,” “about,” “around,” “twp,” “township,” “city,” “county,” or “state,” with the place-name unless the term is normally used as part of the name (for example, Mexico City, Salt Lake City, or New York City).

    Since County is normally used as part of the name, then it should be okay to use it.

    1
  • John Curran
    John Curran ✭✭✭
    September 29, 2023

    And please, please remember that in Ireland and the UK "County" comes before the name of the county, thus, "County Antrim".

    Never after the county name as is the practice in North America.

    1
This discussion has been closed.
Clear
No Groups Found

Categories

  • All Categories
  • 43.1K Ask a Question
  • 3.4K General Questions
  • 572 FamilySearch Center
  • 6.8K Get Involved/Indexing
  • 645 FamilySearch Account
  • 6.6K Family Tree
  • 5.2K Search
  • 1K Memories
  • 2 Suggest an Idea
  • 478 Other Languages
  • 62 Community News
  • Groups