How to document Scott County, Tennessee prior to 1849

Question

Just a note: Created 1849 from Anderson, Campbell, Fentress, and Morgan counties; named in honor of Winfield Scott, Scott county did not exist, as such, until after 1840. I believe Anne (Ayers) Goad (Ayres-557) was buried in what was the southern portion of Scott County which was, then, Anderson county.

Answer 1

Just put your last sentence in the death part of the bio. I would probably reorder it...

possibly buried in Anderson County (currently southern Scott County)

and then either put your source or explain your reasoning.

If she died there as well, I would put Anderson in the box as death place and then use the same explanation for death followed by something like she is believed to have been buried in the immediate area.

If  the geographical stuff is convoluted or breaks up the flow too much. put the discussion in Research Notes with a source on the jurisdictional changes. Wikipedia is good for basic county timelines.

 

Always use contemporary place names when known in the fields.

Comments

whoa Ron - I beg to differ there - I have been painstakingly correcting place names to match what they were when the event happened and I am so glad the reference to do this is now complete by our fine guys over in Colonial Place names who spet a LOT of time and effort and got some help but did most of the work themselves making this elaborate spreadsheet for just this very task - state by state and change by change - here is the link to that:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jlRaiRtaMEpsPdeuRLS2ids4HAXJyGVCKiQyEMh4NNE/edit#gid=667189750

and my understanding in Wikitree we put down what they (the person we are documenting) would have - so that has to be the right way to go in my opinion - now some argue that may not give you the current mapping link like the current name of the place would - but I see it as better because if someone is looking up information on the family of that person it is contained in the current records of the time - so the place names would be the old ones - the new ones they would not find anything

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oops I meant contemporary to the event, contemperaneous?

anyways what you said is what I was trying to say.

there is extra value for burials in also mentioning location changes as family may want to visit the actual gravesite. Also, cemeteries change names over time many become "Old (place)" or the supporting church is abandoned etc. Sometimes the best you can do is give rough directions like with ghost towns. which I suppose marble orchards are figuratively.

ugh my brain needs a new editor

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there we go -  dang semantics - here I was challenging you and we were on the same page - so hard to communicate some days - lots of people get things so messed up when it is all ok!