In my place it’s very common that a village that used to exist is now part a of a city or doesn’t exist at all.
Sometimes the name of the place changes over time.
How do you deal with this issue? Do you use the original names, the present names of multiple names in the same family? I’m curious how you would handle this.
I use the name of the place at the time of the event. Burials I have made an exception for, and typically put the name it is known as today. On the Places page you can add notes about a location and what past and present names it has gone by.
1 Like
My ultimate goal is to publish my family tree (rather than keep it all to myself). With this in mind, I’ve generally used modern names for Places, irrespective of when the event happened. However if it’s particularly important to maintain consistency with the wider historical record, I’ve used the original place name unchanged. So for example, in the case of a 19th century church missionary in the British Raj, I have him working in Sindh, India - even though Sindh has been part of Pakistan since Independence in 1947. This may look a little contradictory at first sight but it seems the best way to make the story as relevant as I can to today’s reader, Where necessary, I add a note to a Place to explain name changes.
1 Like