question about standardized place names, name of ancestor's birthplace
I received one on one help from Daniel Jones to find my great-grandmother's family. He gave me the name of the birthplace as Ebersdorf, Schleiz, Reuss, Junger-Linie, Thuringen, Germany. When I try to put that in as the standardized place, it does not come up as a choice on the drop down menu. Also, when I try to look it up in the research wiki, it says "do you mean ebersdorf schley?" I was wondering if anyone could help me understand these two things.
Also, I know my great-grandmother's mother came from Weida, when I look that up in the research wiki it says " do you mean weimar?" I looked Weida, Germany up on google and it says, Weida is in the district of Greiz, in Thuringia, Germany. Research Wiki says that weimar is in Saxony Germany. I have seen Weida just north of Ebersdorf, Schleiz on the historic map, but I feel like Wiki says there's no such place.
I would like to know how to look up my 2nd great grandmother's birthplace, It's very confusing to me. Please explain to me.
Commenti
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A useful tool to check on the historical development of locations is http://gov.genealogy.net/. Here you find the changes for "your" Ebersdorf: http://gov.genealogy.net/item/show/object_284572. If I understand the graphic correctly, Ebersdorf belonged to "Freistaat Reuß Jüngere Linie" from 1871 to 1919.
The search is for location names only - so you'll get a large number of hits for Ebersdorf ... then use the search function of your browser to search for "Thüringen" in the text.
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Thank you! Could I have my question about Weida answered as well.
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Well - same procedure - just search yourself 😉.
http://gov.genealogy.net/item/show/object_153718 tells us for 1815-1920 Weida belonged to Freistaat Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach, after 1920 to (what is now Bundesland = state) Thüringen.
https://s.meyersgaz.org/search?search=weida also indicates another (village) Weida in Sachsen.
No such source will ever be "complete" - one should always consult several sources.
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Thank you!!
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I find Myers Gazeteer to be a very useful source for German place names. Doing a search just for the name "Ebersdorf", reveals the name of several villages throughout Germany, but narrowing it down to locations in Reuß jüngerer Linie (the name of a small German state - there is no comma after "Reuß") narrows it down to two locations, or actually, two named locations in one village: https://s.meyersgaz.org/search?search=Ebersdorf. Sometimes you have to toggle the historic map on the MG page to get the name of the modern location, but a bit further research reveals that Ebersdorf was joined with a neighboring town to make the current city of Saalburg-Ebersdorf, Thuringia.
Familysearch isn't always 100% accurate in the exact locations they list for the name of a town or neighborhood and the exact hierarchy of political subdivisions that place fell into during a particular historical period, but it at least allows you many options and has a distinct advantage over Ancestry where the only standardized places reflect current geography. In my case, on Ancestry, I can't list my East Prussian ancestors under the German names of their villages and as "East Prussia, German Empire", but rather only the current Russian or Polish name and "Kalingrad, Russia" or "Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, Poland", which can affect search results if I'm traying to search for related records within a country of origin.
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