Randy Seaver Are you saying that if I say someone died in Wheeling Virginia in 1863 my software should automatically say they died in Wheeling, Virginia before June 20, 1863?
Likewise, I say someone died in Wheeling, West Virginia in 1863 my software should automatically say they died in Wheeling, West Virginia after June 20, 1863?
I believe Randy meant that a product should use all the information available to it (incl. alterntive names, dates of rise & fall, boundary changes, etc) to help you fill in the correct place reference. In other words Andy, that it shouldn't play dumb and require you to enter a full unambiguous specification yourself.
ReplyDeletenot exactly, Andy, I don't know what I'd do with a date that is near a statehood change date or a county line change date. If it was 10 June 1862, I'd want it to say Wheeling, Virginia, Confederate States because that would be the correct jurisdiction at the time of the event.
ReplyDeleteTo me, that is the only logical place name it should be, but the only way to ensure consistency is to have a place heirarchy name catalog built into software so that if I input Wheeling WV it puts the correct historical place name in the field. Hopefully, the Place name that associates the historical names, the current place name and the GeoCode so it shows on a map would be noted in a Place Note.
Thanks Tony Proctor and Randy Seaver, just trying to get things straight in my head. :)
ReplyDeleteJust to throw some gas on the fire, you all seem to assume that the town given is known to be accurate. For example, if I was told my ggg-grandfather died in Wheeling, Virginia in 1863, that doesn't mean it was before June 20, it just means the person who reported it may not have known or cared to make the distinction. It was in the middle of the war, everything was a bit hazy, etc. I wouldn't want to infer a date was before a name change just because the pre-change name is used. Certainly not automatically, in any case. In Europe there are towns that have names in Polish, German and Russian - but if I use one name does that mean the event took place in the period that that name was in official use? or perhaps all the names were used depending on who was speaking?
ReplyDeleteThat's not entirely correct Philip. I have references to English villages that I simply cannot identify. However, I still create a Place entity for them, I still attach supporting evidence and citations, and I can still associate them with events. All that's missing is the association with actual places and the associated hierarchies. This is not that different to handling an unidentified person. As I keep saying, the analogies can be leveaged to great effect.
ReplyDeleteA different, although interesting, problem. Just like genealogy standards need to support fuzzy dates, they need to support fuzzy locations. The Library of Congress effort to improve date-time encoding with their Extended Date Time Format (EDTF) proposal is important for genealogy, and something similar for places is important. I'll make sure to put some thought into that when I work on my paper on places.
ReplyDelete