My Mother-in-Law's Birthplace

Question

This is not a new topic, but I have not seen a definitive answer.

My mother-in-law was born in what was, at the time, the city of Czernowitz, province of Bukovina, Austro-Hungarian Empire. After WWI, it became Chernauti, Romania and after WWII it became Chernivsti, Ukraine, which it remains today.

In her profile, and those of her family members, I have put Chernivsti, Ukraine as her birthplace. I have tried to explain the history of the city in the biographical text. My reasoning has been that using the current city and country makes it easy to locate on a map search. I can also understand the logic for using the city name that was in use at the time of her birth. That is, after all, the name that she remebered and that was on her birth certificate.

I am perfectly willing to go either way, but I would like to know if there is an official policy one way or the other.

Comments

Can you put then and now?

Czernowits now called Chernivsti?

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It seems that reasearch databases, e.g. Jewishgen.org, use the modern name for searches, so I guess I will stick with that and explain the historical name in the biographical text.

Answer 1

The policy is here

http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Location_Fields

 

We should be using the names they would have used, in the language they would have used.

Comments

Thank you for identifying the Wikitree policy. As a good soldier, I will modify my profiles to follow this policy. The question remains, however, that research sites seem to follow a different policy and that the old names will not show up on Google maps.

In the language in use at the time (German) the city would be called Czernowitz, Österreichisch-Ungarische Monarchie.

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I cut and pasted Czernowicz, etc from your answer above into my mother-in-law's father's profile.  Google maps is pointing to Chernivitsi University. So it works. Now I think I will double check if this is the right in-law who came from there.