What is the best way to enter name of country that changes over time

Question

How do you enter a country name that changes over time?  ie: Poland>Lithuania> Belarus?  What makes it more difficult is when different generations are born under different country names, but it's actually the same place.   The same question applies to changes in the name of ther city/town ie: Meretz to Merkine.

Answer 1

We've had many discussions on this and agreed to use the names from the time the person was alive. You can use the biography section to comment of the name change.

We also agreed to used the names in the language that was used in that time.

Comments

Martyn -- I think this is pretty much what people do in genealogy in general. At first it worried me because I'm interested in geocoding in order to trace my ancestors' movements over space. Then I discovered that Google maps actually will locate a town based on older names. For example, geocoding Fort Orange will show up as a pin on Albany, NY. I was surprised and really pleased to find this problem resolved without a hitch.

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See, now this is why Google maps rocks!

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I get this with some of my distant cousins who lived in Bukovina.  It is sometimes listed as Austria, sometimes Germany, sometimes Hungary, etc.  It was all of those and more. 

Most of it during their time was Austria, so I list it as "Illischestie,  Bukovina, Austria (now Romania)".