War of 1812 records - edit place?
Would it be desirable to edit place to show the state for their unit rather than just United States? (I'd only be doing the ones I'm interested in viewing.)
Answers
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@CMichael7 - an interesting idea. My response may sound pedantic, but I think that it's important. The point is, I suggest, what does everyone think that the Place for this Military Service actually refers to? Is it where the military service took place? Or does it refer to the area responsible for recruiting the soldiers?
In general terms (ie ignoring the War of 1812 because I'm a Brit) the two places are radically different. Eg, my Grandad was in the Cheshire Regiment during WW1 but served in France & Flanders, and Palestine.
In the case shown above, the guy served in a unit associated with Tennessee, but could have been deployed over a much wider area. I presume.
So, altering the place to Tennessee would, I think, only make sense if we believe that people think that the Place refers to the unit's sponsoring area, rather than where the guy served.
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Understood. But for genealogy research, which is what we do here, having the state they were likely from helps a lot in narrowing the search to find the right person. (I already finished looking at those records for now anyway.)
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@CMichael7 - narrowing the search is an excellent idea, but we would need to make it clear that the Place is the one associated with the unit, rather than where they fought. So probably FS should rename that item before reindexing it. Maybe UnitPlace? (I'd suggest RecruitmentPlace if I were certain that the East Tennessee Volunteers only recruited in Tennessee).
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