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21 December 2011

Has That Place Name Changed?

Ever consider the possibility that the place name simply changed instead of something moving?

6 comments:

  1. Greatgrandpa's saloon and hotel/Greatgrandma's restaurant "went under the lake" in Idaho. A little hard to research there today.

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  2. I consider I have a reasonable command of the English language - so saying, I cannot grasp what this Tip of the Day is trying to convey.
    I can't recall this happening before as I find the advice to be quite clear, concise and very helpful.

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  3. This one perhaps was a little too short and actually the "draft" went out instead of the actual tip. The intent was something like this:

    "Have you considered the possibility that the place name changed when you can find a reference to it in 1850, but it is nowhere to be found in 1860, 1870, etc.? Don't assume the place became abandoned or a ghost town. It may still exist in the exact same spot and never have moved, but may be simply hiding under a different name."

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  4. Another thought -- sometimes small (unincorporated) comunities get swallowed up when a larger city grows up around them.

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  5. I use wikipedia.com for place names. Type in the Place, County, State [County] in the browser. Then all the possible combinations will come up... usually... wiki has the best info. Including: History of the Location, Dates, People, Etc. And links for additional research... I will follow out a "lead" sometimes for hours. Saving a Link to the desktop, then creating a Folder for later reference.

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  6. My folder for Wallingford Castle in England includes: Wallingford Castle - Wikipedia, List of Lords of Wallingford Castle - Wikipedia, List of prisoners at Wallingford Castle - Wikipedia. Sometimes I rename the link and/or folder to include [dates, names of ancestors, etc]

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