Handling Place Name Changes Over Time: A Genealogical Challenge
How should you handle locations that have changed names or jurisdictions over time? Should you use the historic place name, and if so, how do you geocode it? One common example of this issue arises when identifying places in the U.S. before the American Revolution. Another frequent challenge is dealing with changes in county names.
While updating place names for a narrative report, I encountered this issue with Caledonia, Genesee County, New York. RootsMagic could not generate a geocode for this location.
A quick Google search for Caledonia, New York showed that it is now in Livingston County, not Genesee County. Fortunately, the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society provided a resource listing the towns and villages of Genesee County, which clarified the historical context. Between 1802 and 1821, Caledonia was part of Genesee County. However, with the formation of Livingston County in 1821, Caledonia was reassigned to the newly established county.
This presented a dilemma: For an event that took place prior to 1821, should I record Caledonia in Genesee County (as it was at the time) or Caledonia in Livingston County (as it is today)?
Fortunately, a discussion in the Facebook RootsMagic Users group offered a useful approach:
Enter the historical location name and abbreviation, but use the current name for standard location and geocoding.
Following this advice, I recorded Caledonia, Genesee County (historical) and used Google Maps to obtain the latitude and longitude. I then manually entered this information into RootsMagic.
Unfortunately, RootsMagic did not automatically add the standardized name, so I had to input it manually. Despite this minor inconvenience, this approach ensures accuracy in both historical and modern contexts while allowing for proper geocoding.
