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Archiver > TMG > 2001-08 > 0996719734


From: "Marty Ryerson" <>
Subject: RE: [TMG] Place names in the United Kingdom
Date: Wed, 1 Aug 2001 22:37:39 -0400
In-Reply-To: <003f01c11af6$bf50b8e0$4f03893e@carolinegurney>


Caroline,

Thanks so much for the informative reply. I will have to check and see if I
can locate that source, but I fear it is from my careless newbie days when I
didn't do documentation. I will enter them with your notations and
questions for now.

I think I can explain why we use County/Parish. The State of Louisiana (and
I think perhaps one other) uses the term Parish for historical reasons
(which I don't have on the tip of my brain -- I was going to say it is late
at night here, but I just looked at my watch and realized it is almost 2:30
UT, so it is even later where you are.)

Anyway, the parishes in Louisiana are pretty much equivalent in political
significance to counties in the rest of the states. The one that bogs us
down is that many states (particularly west of the Alleghenies) subdivide
counties into townships. And many times, birth, marriage, and death records
will state that John Doe was born in "Union District" or "Smith Precinct"
which are smaller still, but still not cities, towns, villages, or Post
Offices (although it is possible for a town to be contiguous with a
township). So, we sometimes have to fit more than one of these into one of
the location fields.

And of course, New York City is divided into Burroughs, which are similar to
counties, and there, as in many other large cities, the precincts are
divided into wards. And, where most cities are located within a county,
some are "independent cities" which are "surrounded," if you please, by a
county. There are also some cities, such as Bristol Virginia/Tennessee,
which straddle a state line (in this case, the main street in town is called
State Street, and it is also the state line).

Political history has made the genealogy puzzle a great challenge! <g>

Thanks for your response.

-----Original Message-----
From: Caroline Gurney [mailto:]
Sent: Wednesday, August 01, 2001 9:58 PM

Secondly, when alternative place name labels were introduced to TMG, Wholly
Genes added the label "Parish" to the US County field which I personally
don't like.


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