Arlington National Cemetery location.
According to Find a Grave it is located at Arlington, Arlington County, Virginia, USA
FS does not have this place in standard place names. Just county level.
I rarely do a suggestion for updating standard place names. I would have to relearn it all over.
I was hoping one of you would like to take on the challenge.
Then if you so feel like what it are our other other National cementeies location good?
Answers
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First question is, who is right? FamilySearch or Find A Grave?
According to Wikipedia:
Arlington County is a county in the U.S. state of Virginia.... Arlington County is the second-largest city in the Washington metropolitan area, although it does not have the legal designation of an independent city or incorporated town under Virginia state law.
In 2020, the county's population was estimated at 238,643, making Arlington County the sixth-largest county in Virginia by population and the largest unincorporated community in the United States. If Arlington County were incorporated as a city, it would be the third-most populous city in Virginia. With a land area of 26 square miles (67 km2), Arlington is the geographically smallest self-governing county in the U.S. but has no incorporated towns under state law.
Which means there is no such place as "Arlington, Arlington County, Virginia, USA" in the opinion of that author.
Looking one more place, the official website for Arlington County, I find:
History
• March 13, 1847: Established as Alexandria County.
• March 16, 1920: The name was changed to Arlington County.
• In 1791, Arlington was originally part of a 10-mile square surveyed for the nation’s capital.
• In 1846, the U.S. Congress returned a portion of the District of Columbia on the west bank of the Potomac River to the Commonwealth of Virginia, in response to requests from local residents.
• In 1922, a decision by the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals declared Arlington a “continuous, contiguous and homogeneous community.” As a result, there are no incorporated towns or cities within Arlington’s boundaries.
So that site agrees there is no Arlington City within Arlington County.
I have heard of other instances where Find A Grave has incorrect place names.
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Gordon,
you are right .... lived in Arlington for years. It is only a county with no city. Arlington, Arlington County, Virginia is incorrect. thanks for your detailed explanation. Similarly, nearby Alexandria, Virginia is only a city (independent city) with no county designation.
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Thanks for the help. I will send a suggestion to Find a Grave to update cemetery place.
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At the bottom of the Arlington National Cemetery page it gives this address:
Arlington National Cemetery • Arlington, VA 22211
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Thanks for everyone's input.
I did get a response from Find a Grave.
"Thank you for reaching out to us with this question. Location information in the United States is derived from the USGS Geographical Names System. Arlington is listed as both a populated place name and as a county."
In other words they turned my suggestion down.
Later
Nolan
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Postal wise it's Arlington, VA. While not an incorporated city or town, Arlington occupies the city designation in a USPS mailing address.
The same goes for Alexandria outside of city limits. It's Alexandria, VA from the city all the way down US 1 to Fort Belvior. I know, I've walked it.
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USPS only uses two levels of jurisdiction in all addresses, though, so they're no help in convincing Find A Grave that they're wrong about "Arlington, Arlington".
I tried to make sense of the USGS database, but it's hard. For Arlington the unincorporated place, it says:
Government Units
Sequence | State or Equivalent | County or Equivalent
1 | Virginia | Arlington County
For comparison, for Ventura County, California (a very standard sort of county with a bunch of places within it, both incorporated and unincorporated), it says:
Government Units
Sequence | State or Equivalent | County or Equivalent
1 | California | Ventura County
Given that the county of Ventura is not below itself in the jurisdictional heirarchy, the listing of Arlington cannot be taken as a statement about its jurisdictional position -- but it sure as heck looks like it can.
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There is no city of Arlington and by law, there are no cities or towns within the county of Arlington. Arlington is an urban county, the smallest in Virginia. Per the Virginia Supreme Court ruling in 1922, it is a "continuous, contiguous and homogeneous entity which cannot be subdivided nor can any portion be annexed by neighboring jurisdictions."
The address is: Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington Virginia 22211
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In "fairness" to Find A Grave, perhaps they are just being of "help" in effectively advising those (like me) who are completely ignorant of the geography of Virginia and who might otherwise think that plain "Arlington" (the USGS version of the place) might refer to Arlington, Northampton, Virginia or Arlington, Hopewell, Virginia.
The situation is even confusing in FamilySearch - where (as with the postal address), "Arlington, Virginia..." is the only name (apart from Alexandria County, Virginia) in the database (albeit categorised as a County) that matches the actual location of the cemetery.
This always raises the point that, presumably, "Alexandria County" should be inputted for all pre-1920 burials.
One final point - FamilySearch also has (without any dates) "Arlington, Upshur, Virginia" included in its database. Google maps tells me Arlington, Upshur County is in West Virginia - can anyone explain this (FamilySearch has "both")?
Obviously, the best options in using "Display names" is yet another issue - "Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington County, Virginia, United States" presumably being the best option (for post 1920 events).
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@Paul W The Arlington in Upshur county was indeed in Virginia prior to 1863 (when West Virginia was split off from Virginia during the Civil War). So as a historical place, it's entirely correct to place this Arlington in the state of Virginia.
However, the standardized place (see https://www.familysearch.org/research/places/?focusedId=5271439) could certainly be improved. First of all, it would certainly help if it (and its corresponding current place in West Virginia at https://www.familysearch.org/research/places/?focusedId=5271440) had date information to clarify that one is before 1863 and the other is after 1863. And the one in Virginia has a bogus reference in Basic Information to Arlington County, Virginia, which is clearly incorrect and confusing. I've submitted correction requests for all these issues.
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I've noticed that FS often has dates associated with locations' names, which helps with determining specific location designations in relation to the vital record dates. Then the question always arises as to whether to put the original named locale, or the current named locale. But that is a whole other discussion! A site I like for understanding changes in geographic boundary and name changes is Newberry's Atlas of Historical County Boundaries at https://digital.newberry.org/ahcb/
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Then the question always arises as to whether to put the original named locale, or the current named locale.
Which is why I have raised the issue on this forum on more than one occasion! The consistent advice has been to record the place in a format relating to how it was known at the time of burial. I see the issue as whether one wants to record where your relatives were buried, or where they are buried - albeit the map references should be identical!
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Agree - cemeteries may change names, towns may become part of different counties, or even disappear. Taking the time to record in the record, whether in collaboration notes, reason why information is correct, etc., is the only way to help others who might seek out that burial place, or think they need to change the information.
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