Historical vs. Current place names?
Answers
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This is similar to your question on name variations, but more complex as there is no "place name variations" standard. I would love to be able to set a location with it's name/ownership changes recorded and display the correct name at the time of the event.
Then you could see the town change name and be part of the Duchy of Wrocław (1025-1392), then Kingdom of Bohemia (1392-1526), Habsburg Empire (1526-1742), Kingdom of Prussia (1742-1762), Austria (late 1762), Kingdom of Prussia again (1763-1871), German Empire (1871-1945), and finally Poland (1945-now).
I admit to being inconsistent there. I did try using period names, but that made reusing locations difficult and, in some cases, required a lot of research. Someone could have lived his entire live in the same town, but was born in Prussia, married in Germany, and died in Poland.
I'm curious to see what others do.
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This is a great question. You can do it either way, remember FamilyTree is set to mine data based on the information you add. The other wonderful genealogy companies do the same.
You've probably noticed, when entering place names, (FamilySearch goes from biggest: Country, State, County, Town) you will get different place name locations. It might be worth consideration, to put in the name of when the record was found, rather than what it is now. I know this is a dilemma, I struggle with this too, but I have to remind myself, I am not the only one who is or will be looking at my tree. I have five kids, and one day, they may actually be bitten by the genealogy bug, and will read what I have added. They need to make sense of what is there. Good notes are not only helpful in jogging my own memory, but also, in explaining something, especially, something that looks like conflicting location information. This all leads to a history lesson.
FamilySearch FamilyTree will be searching for the records available, based on your input, which will result in more hints. The Hints will show up in blue on the right of your detail page. #GotHints?
But, when it comes to searching for those records, you will want to look in all of the place names. Anticipate that records will come in different languages, Polish, German, Russian, and Latin. When you add your sources, you can always enter in why you entered in the information the way you did, and you can note that there are different names for that location.
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I was always taught to use the place name as it was in the record. That way someone else can find the same record in the archives. I would add a note or alternative place to show how the place name changed.
Therefore, a person might be born in one place, marry in another, and die in a third...all while living in the same home as the boundaries change.
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"I was always taught to use the place name as it was in the record."
That makes sense if you're referencing a single document. A person's birth location, for example, can be mentioned in birth/baptism certificates, mariage licenses, military records, immigration, death certificates, legal documents, children's miscellaneous records, and more. As you find more documents related to that individual, you may have to make a decision on which version of the location to use, even if none of the options are technically incorrect.
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