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Archiver > TMG > 2003-03 > 1046540948


From: "Darrell A. Martin" <>
Subject: [TMG] Places - a TMG wishlist item for v.6
Date: Sat, 01 Mar 2003 11:49:08 -0600
In-Reply-To: <14e.1c62d566.2b922229@cs.com>


At 09:48 AM 3/1/03 -0500, wrote:
>In a message dated 2/28/2003 10:36:19 PM Central Standard Time,
> writes:
>
>
> > How do you think this should be handled so that you can retain the
> place as
> > it was described within the source and yet bring together records in the
> > Master Place List and List of Events reports that most probably refer to
> > the same place?
> >
> > I would be interested in people's opinions (as to whether this is
> something
> > that concerns you) and whether you have any ideas of how that situation
> may
> > be best dealt with.
> >
> > Robin Lamacraft (Adelaide, Australia)
>
>Robin,
>I only use the name of the place at the time the person lived there. If my
>source uses the current name, I will use that, with a note that "X place
>didn't exist at that time period, or that he really lived in Y, which is
>currently known as X."
>Teresa Ghee Elliott

Hi:

I do not have a completely consistent method, but I'm working on it. It's
one of the two small cleanup projects that still face me in ver. 4.0d.

I have an aversion to creating two Place Records for what is undoubtedly a
single place. For example, Flamstead, New Hampshire, chartered in 1754, was
at a later time *also* (concurrently!) under New York administration, in
Cumberland County. When New Hampshire gave up its claim, New York had to
contend with the Republic of Vermont, which in 1791 became one of the
United States. Today the place is called Chester, Windsor County, Vermont.
Yet it has few if any of the characteristics that might argue that it has
been more than one "place" since its settlement by those of European
descent. Its government has been continuous, along with most of its record
keeping (which in New England in earlier years was overwhelmingly done at
the Town level). Its boundaries have not significantly changed. Its
population has remained stable over the years as well, with gradual and
evolutionary changes rather than drastic migrations.

Furthermore, Flamstead/Chester pales by comparison to some European cities
who changed countries more times, and about as often, as Zsa Zsa Gabor and
Elizabeth Taylor changed husbands. Unlike Gabor and Taylor, they often
changed their names at the same time [grin]. But I think we become *way*
too "record-centric" when we our data seems to say that a change of a name
somehow equates to any meaningful change in the place itself. I am reminded
of the story, often repeated among Vermonters and just possibly even true
[grin], about the farmer who found in 1791 that the final boundary
adjustment prior to statehood had put his property on the New York side of
the line. "Thank goodness," he said, "I don't think I could take another
one of them Vermont winters."

My preferred method is to connect all events in what is today Chester,
Vermont, to the *one* place record that has that name. At the Tag level, I
make a note, as necessary, "then called Flamstead, New Hampshire" or
whatever applies. This permits me to identify continuity of residence, and
connections to other residences, through the CRW.

What I would *really* like to see is a revamping of the structure of place
records in TMG. Each record should have a more or less arbitrary
designation, visible to the user (the "primary name" or a "number") that
would have "Name-Var" equivalents tied to it. Just as Tags in v.5 can be
connected to Witnesses (Primary or Other) through their names at the time,
or as recorded, without having to have more than one Person record; so, we
should be able to connect Tags to Places through various names without
having more than one Place Record. This implies a few changes to the user
interface as well, I think.

But this should not be done until ver. 5 is really finished, and stable,
and as bug-free as may be reasonably expected of complex software running
on a hodge-podge of equipment and operating systems. At least that is my
opinion.

Darrell


Darrell Allen MARTIN
a native Vermonter currently in exile in Addison, Illinois
www.darrell-martin.net/genealogy/


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