How are counties to be handled in pre-revolution place names?

Question

When correcting the place names that are pre-Revolution, counties don't seem to show up as options in drop down suggestions. Were there no counties until after the Revolution?

Comments

Hello, Katharine!

The better course of action is to do as J. mentions in his reply and not to enter a county - unless, of course, you can source it.

If the drop-down menu does not include a county, then don't add a county if you haven't found a source that gives a county or if the current sources don't include a county.

No source = no data!!

Answer 1

In my experience, the drop-down lists for pre-American-Revolution places include county names, but it's sometimes not clear that they are counties, because the county names don't include the word "County."

Most of the areas I've researched seem to have had some sort of a functioning county government during the colonial era, although the counties didn't necessarily exist from the time of initial settlement.

One issue I've encountered regarding pre-Revolution counties is that the dropdown list doesn't always reflect changes in the county for a particular community. For example, Kinderhook and Claverack, New York, were in Albany County before 1786, when Columbia County was formed, but the dropdown list treats them as always having been in Columbia County. That's a problem, because researchers looking for early records from those places may need to look in Albany County.

Answer 2

Unless I absolutely know that a county name is correct, I avoid it, no matter the time period.  For example, at various times, the county name for Denver, Colorado changed, and it varied depending upon where you were located within Denver.  Since I don't have all of those variations memorized, I usually use the simplest option for Denver, Colorado (not even considering Denver, Kansas Territory or Denver, Colorado Territory)

Comments

But many people, especially then, were not born in any real town, though we do know the county that they were born in. That's what I have found in many, many of my old records. I would hate to give up that information by removing counties.

(And for that matter, in present day, when babies are almost born in hospitals, their actual birth place may be in the city, but their family never lived in the city.)

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Exactly--it's the same sort of situation, except in reverse.  My aunt was born near Sutherland, Nebraska on their homestead in what is still an unincorporated portion of the county.  I'm not saying get rid of counties.  I'm saying that unless I'm certain, I'm leery about either using the wrong county or using a non-existent county, or using a city when I should be using the county.  If I don't know for certain, I'd rather go broader.

Answer 3

Counties were around as early as the 1600s.  If you're uncertain as to whether the county existed at a particular time check it out with Wikipedia or FamilySearch.org.

Pat