Super Maximizing Maps for Genealogy: Part One

England Jurisdictions 1851

The entire surface of the earth has been mapped by satellite for quite a few years and with historical maps going back into antiquity, genealogists can increase the accuracy of their research by specifically locating ancestral events and making sure the place names associated with those events are both reasonable and accurate. Over the years I have spent supporting people doing their genealogical research, I can say with absolute certainty that searching in the wrong place is the number one issue for genealogists who cannon find an ancestor. What this means is that the researcher, for whatever reason, is using the wrong place as the location of an event.  Here is an example of an obviously wrongly designated place.

Jerimiah Brown who was born in "about 1735" could not have been born in the United States. However, this designation does bring up an important issue as to how places should be recorded for genealogical purposes. The general rule is that places need to be recorded as they existed at the time the event occurred. Although the use of "United States" rather than the more correct "British Colonial America" may seem trivial, the failure to make the distinction indicates a lack of awareness of the importance of accuracy in recording place names. So was Jeremiah Brown born in South Kingstown, Washington, Rhode Island, British Colonial America, assuming he was born about 1735?

The answer to this question goes to a more serious issue; were the places named in existence in 1735? If I correct the United States to British Colonial America is the rest correct? A quick check in Wikipedia.com for South Kingstown, Rhode Island will start to answer these questions. The first thing we discover is that Wikipedia states that South Kingstown was Incorporated in 1723. Is this correct? What about the county designation? When was Washington County formed?

If we start looking at the history of South Kingstown, we find that the situation is a lot more complicated. Quoting from the Southern Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce website which contains an article entitled, "History of Southern Rhode Island - by Sandy McCaw - Chamber Historian,"

South Kingstown was founded in 1722 when Kings Towne was split into two parts. South Kingstown included the area that later became Narragansett. North Kingstown included the area that later became Exeter. A large portion of South Kingstown had first been settled in1657/8 at the time of the Pettaquamscutt Purchase. The town hall was originally located at Tower Hill, it was later moved to the village of Kingston before being moved to Wakefield in 1878 where it remains. South Kingstown’s other major villages include Peace Dale, West Kingston, Usquapaug, Green Hill, Perryville, Matunuck, and Middlebridge. 

Well, it looks like Wikipedia and the author of this history disagree, but the difference of one year does not seem to impact the place designation of Kingstown. But what is more important, Wahington County originated when King's County's name was changed to Washington County in 1781. So the county is wrongly designated.

This may seem somewhat picky and too detailed, but remember that in order to find genealogically important records, we need to know the specific places where events occurred and this includes correcting any place names to the way they were designated at the time of the event. I can demonstrate this by showing the places used for cataloging in the FamilySearch.org Catalog. Here is the first level of Rhode Island place categories.

General records from Rhode Island are classified in this part of the Catalog. If we look at the places within Rhode Island, we see the following. Note that the Catalog does not distinguish between the time period covered by British Colonial America and the United States.

You can see from this list, especially if you take the time to learn about the political jurisdictions of the area where you are doing research, that these are the current county names except for New Port and Sowams. If you refer to the Newberry Atlas of Historical County Boundaries, you will find that this is the list of both current and historical counties.

• BRISTOL (Mass.)
• BRISTOL
• Connecticut Colony
• KENT
• King's Province
• KINGS (see WASHINGTON)
• Narragansett Country
• New Plymouth Colony
• NEWPORT
• Pawtuxet Settlement
• PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS (see PROVIDENCE)
• PROVIDENCE
• Rhode Island Colony
• RHODE ISLAND (see NEWPORT)
• SUFFOLK (Mass.)
• WASHINGTON

There are two names in the FamilySearch.org Catalog list that don't match: New Port and Sowams. Here is an explanation of Sowams from the Wikipedia article on Warren, Rhode Island.

Warren was the site of the Indian village of Sowams, located on the peninsula called Pokanoket (Mount Hope Neck), and Edward Winslow and Stephen Hopkins from the Plymouth Colony established a trading post there in 1621. In 1623, Winslow and John Hampden saved the life of Wampanoag Sachem Massasoit, gaining an important ally. In 1636, Roger Williams was banished from Salem, Massachusetts and fled to Sowams, where he was sheltered by Massasoit until he established Providence Plantations.

Continuing the comments from the Wikipedia article:

Sowams was ceded to Rhode Island from Massachusetts in 1747 along with the Attleborough Gore (now Cumberland), Barrington, Bristol, Tiverton, and Little Compton, Rhode Island. The town was named "Warren" after British naval hero Admiral Sir Peter Warren after a victory at Louisburg in 1745. Barrington was unified with Warren at the time, until it was separated again in 1770.

The cataloging system used in the FamilySearch.org catalog is not an adequate substitute for researching both the current and historic places around the world but it is a valuable resource to get started in finding the records. A more comprehensive list of place names is available from the Board on Geographic Names from the U.S. Geological Survey.  This huge database has been growing since 1890. If I search using the Domestic Names search for Sowams, Rhode Island, I find the following list of places:

Only one of the results seems pertinent to this discussion but Sowa ms is definitely marked as "Historical." But what about New Port? It would be simple to assume that Newport and New Port are the same place but once again, I need to do some research. Apparently, New Port and Newport are the same but it behooves us all to spend the time making sure we know the exact locations in our research.

Going forward with the Catalog entries for places within Washington County, Rhode Island, here is the list.

In this example for Jerimiah Brown, there are no sources listed for either the year or place of his birth. The Rhode Island Vital Record lists a Jerimiah Brown as baptized on June 18, 1711. When the places are not accurate, you have to begin to doubt all of the other information in any entry from an online family tree.