Place Name Order

Place Name Order

Here's how I entered cemetery names in my genealogy records.

City/Town Name, County Name followed by "Co.," State Abbreviation, Cemetery Name


You might ask the question, "Why did you enter the cemetery name last, rather than first?" The reason I do this is because in a sorted place name list I want to see the names of all of the cemeteries in a particular geographic location together in the list.

For example in my Conger file, in the case of Cameron, Ohio, I used four place names. Here's how they look in a sorted place name listing.

Cameron, Monroe Co., OH
Cameron, Monroe Co., OH, Atkinson Cemetery
Cameron, Monroe Co., OH, New Cameron Cemetery
Cameron, Monroe Co., OH, Old Cameron Cemetery

Did I make my point? If I'd entered the cemetery names first the four place names would have appeared in the place name list in four different locations, in the "A," "C," "N," and "O" parts of the listing.

Mr. Dickie
13/Feb/2011 10:39

Counties Count

Counties Count

Often when genealogy information is shared I run into a problem with place names. The person who first recorded the name of a place where a life event occurred didn't write down the county name. The result is that we really don't know where the person was living at the time of the event. This is because in some states the same place names were used more than once. It's bad enough when two places in the same state have the same name. Imagine the confusion when there are more than two.

Another problem with place names comes up when a county and a town in that county have the same name. How am I supposed to know whether the person who shared the information was referring to a town within a county or to the county?

When I first started doing genealogy I didn't take this problem into account. I've come to regret that. In recent years I've been working to correct the problem. I decided I'd use the abbreviation, "Co.," after the county name. For example: Bellevue, Sarpy Co., NE or just Sarpy Co., NE when I don't know the town name.

This week I have been editing the place names in my RootsMagic Conger family file. Yesterday I complete a first pass through the place name file associated with this family.

The place name edit project reminded me of another place name issue. Often when cemetery names were recorded, and shared, the person who wrote down the cemetery name failed to include the town and county name. This makes it difficult, if not impossible, to determine where the cemetery is located. Another cemetery name issue is failure to accurately record the cemetery name. This probably happens because many cemeteries don't have name signs.

Mr. Dickie
11 Feb 2011