[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Naming and positions of the villages

[Gary Warner]

Gary,

We agree completely that it is important to know the historical names of 
villages, in addition to the modern-day name as well (if the village 
still exists).   The problems we have in using historical villages are 
manyfold.  First, a person might live in a certain village all of his 
life, or even many generations of the same family might all live in the 
same place, but if we follow the historic names only, then we might show 
different village names for the same place- all in a single record for 
that individual family. That would also cause confusion, since it would 
not be apparent that the family never moved.   Second, the merging of 
records is an impossible task if we try to keep straight not only the 
village name, but the historical county and state for each record- this 
would result in as many as three or four versions of the same place that 
someone with great knowledge MIGHT be able to decide which was correct 
for any given event.   The real decider on any naming, of course, is 
whether the villages have the same coordinates.   That is why we use 
Legacy to enter village names, because it allows us to enter coordinates 
for each village.

For our purposes, especially in merging of data, we think it is better 
to use the village name of today in the first place, and then show 
alternate names for the same place in parenthesis.  In the instance 
where a village no longer exists, we would show the village name, and 
then put "(lost)" after the village name.

What we use is not perfect, but works for our needs.

Gary


On 1/27/2015 2:30 PM, getober wrote:
> While it makes sense to use today's Polish names for our ancestors' villages, history cannot be simply erased.
>
> There would be difficulty in using gps positions for the village,but this may be the only real solution. I have noted that modern Polish maps frequently indicate the old village position as "stary" so and so: some areas have been lost. For example, Winduga-Rachinska in Lipno, which I found last night on a list published in the mid- 1800s, is not indicated in modern maps.
>
> However, Google Earth has done exemplary work in indicating historic villages. While certainly not absolutely perfect, I salute their attempt!
>
> Gary Tober
> Sent via the Samsung Galaxy S™ III, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone
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