Geography

Place-names are divided into government entities in the following manner:

• Birthplace - utilize the geographic location as it was known at the time of the event
   
• Christening Place - utilize the geographic location as it was known at the time of event, including the name of the church. This will assist researchers in identifying the location of the record.
   
• Marriage Place - utilize the geographic location as it was known at the time of event, including the name of the church. This will assist researchers in identifying the location of the record. If the event occurred outside of a religious building (i.e. someone's home) list this location in notes, rather than geography
   
• Deathplace - utilize the geographic location as it was known at the time of the event
   
• Burial Place - utilize the geographic location as it is known today, including the cemetery name, to assist researchers in identifying the location

An example where these place-names become important is in the modern-day state of Delaware in the United States. In the early 17th century the location was known as "New Sweden" and then later became known as part of the Netherlands, then later England, and ultimately part of the United States. To assist researchers in locating a place of burial in the 1600s today we utilize the modern-day "USA," however deathplace would be "New Sweden."

Further, there are times when further classification needs to be made. See the below list for further information regarding these definitions:

• Counties: To assist fellow researchers in clearly defining a place-name as a county, utilize "Co" to define a county - Example without this distinction: Provo, Utah, Utah, USA; Example with this clarification: Provo, Utah Co, Utah, USA. I've seen many researchers simply list place-names as "Utah, Utah" as well, which confuses those who are not local to the area which really should be defined as "Utah Co, Utah, USA"
   
• Countries: Countries are to always be included for the benefit of fellow researchers worldwide, including the United States. "USA" may be utilized in lieu of "United States." Do not utilize "UK" nor the "United Kingdom" for the British Isles, but rather England, Ireland, Isle of Man, Scotland, or Wales.
   
• Townships: There is a clear distinction between a town and a township and therefore townships are to be labeled with "Twp" - Examples: Dover, York Co, Pennsylvania, USA and Dover Twp, York Co, Pennsylvania, USA
   
• Hundreds: Hundreds are similar to townships in that they encompass larger political areas, but most times do not have a political entity governing its boundaries. An example is Jacob Cloward Sr who was born in "North Milford Hundred" in Maryland. Milford Hundred is a political boundary utilized in elections, is smaller than the county, but larger than a specific town. Therefore, the use of "Hundred" within its description is important in a place-name and therefore will be represented as "Hnd." An example would be North Milford Hnd, Cecil Co, Maryland, USA. There is also an example of both a town and a hundred in Delaware at Mill Creek.
   
• Quaker Meetings: Quakers held church meetings at various intervals: monthly, quarterly, and yearly. Most birth and marriage records were recorded at monthly meetings. Meetings will be represented simply by "Mtg."

Exceptions to these guidelines are few, but there are examples, particularly in England, where religious parishes don't necessarily follow the government boundaries.

Names

Names are difficult in that they change over time. In databases it is easier to lookup individuals when surnames are spelled exactly the same, however, when researching specific surnames in old documents the original spelling is the most important. Therefore we utilize the following guidelines:

• Utilize the name as found on the original birth record, unless every other instance is listed as a new variation. This is important as I have an ancestor who was born as "Johannes Kumpf," but his name was Americanized to John Kump by the end of his life. I found an instance listed as "Kumpff" as close as seven years before his death, thereby proving that this birth variation was utilized through most of his life, therefore I list him in the database as "John Kumpf."
   
• List other variations of the individuals complete name in your database's "nickname" field. For the above example, I list "John Kumpf; John Kump; Johannes Kump" in the "nickname" field. This is important, particularly for web-based databases, so that web crawlers will make each name variety searchable

Dates

With the advent of the Gregorian Calendar, dates in England and the American Colonies may be inaccurate before 3 Sep 1752. September 3, 1752 was an important date in the calendaring system in that suddenly September 3rd instantly became September 14th. Dates prior to September 14th will likely differ so fellow genealogists should probably document which date they're using.