How to categorize geographic namesakes

Question

Hi - I was thinking of adding profiles for say people who streets in Toronto are named after. So if I wondered what to call this category and what other categories to put it under. I notice there is a similar category Namesakes of US Counties, however there is no "Namesakes" category that it is part of - and I think there should be a general namesakes category (under family perhaps?)

Then it could be Toronto, Ontario | Namesakes | Roads

Do we have a category similar to roads or streets?

Comments

That could get messy for things like Washington street and Martin Luther King Boulevard.

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I am not sure I understand the purpose of this category. Are you going to put a long list of street names on the profiles of certain notables?

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Good call Steven and Lynda. There are 17 roads in Texas alone named after Martin Luther King Jr.

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Also, schools. How many John F. Kennedy schools are there?

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Natalie, Fun fact: There are 7 just in The Netherlands alone!

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This type of information interests me, but it probably belongs in the biography. If my family had a connection to Fuller Road in Ann Arbor, for example, I would want to know, but I would expect to find that information in the profile of the person it was named for.

Notables who are namesake to many geographic features would likely just mention the most prominent ones (e.g. George Washington might mention the state and the U.S. capital city but not the hundreds of counties, cities, townships, streets, schools, and more that are named after him). The bio could link to a well sourced list of course.

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Yes, Thomas, that's the way to do it!

Answer 1

Since you're an Ontario Project member, Tanya, my suggestion would be to start a free-space page similar to the ones we've set up for the Peter Robinson Settlers and other groups in Ontario. I have two streets in Toronto named after family members, so would be happy to help out!

Comments

This is an excellent idea, Laurie.

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Hi Laurie, thanks that is a great idea. So it would be a subspace of the Ontario Project? To those that think this could get messy, my idea was not to take people who have a lot of places named after them and add all those categories to their profile. :) It was more for notables that may be specific to one area, so if say there was a street named after them in Toronto (and they weren't the King of England!) to have a Toronto Street Namesakes category, where interested people could click through and see other people who have streets named after them and their interrelationships. I think if I do include more "general" people on the free space page I will link their profile but not do the reverse. (ie. more prominent notables with many places named after them)

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OK I've taken a stab at getting this started, feel free to add profiles (alphabetic by street name) and/or any other suggestions re: style/sources/etc.

https://www.wikitree.com/index.php?title=Space:Toronto_Street_Namesakes

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Thanks, Tanya. That's great! I love this. I'll add my Posts. And how about a nice Public Domain photo of a Toronto street sign or whatever? I'll leave that up to you. I'll also add a notice to the Ontario Projects newsletter to let people know about the new page.

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In my excitement of lists I have now created one for British Columbia communities:

https://www.wikitree.com/index.php?title=Space:British_Columbia_Community_Namesakes

And one for Ontario communities:

https://www.wikitree.com/index.php?title=Space:Ontario_Community_Namesakes

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I can identify!

I'm finding a number of streets named after early settlers as well as notables. I wondered if you might want to consider adding "early residents" after "notables" in the description?

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Feel free to modify the description! I think early settlers that have places named after them are "notable" but then it may imply only people we have put notable tags on. So not sure the best wording... go for it!

Answer 2

I should invoke the voice of Jack Day by asking "how does this help us group people for genealogical purposes?"

Comments

I had to laugh out loud at this one - but you are correct. When you get to US County names, they are usually of historical importance to the State, such as early founders and settlers.

Roads on the other hand are known by many names, can change names many times over the course of a few decades, and may also not represent their legal name.

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So true. I've seen this happen just recently when Yawkey Way in Boston, named for former Red Sox team owner Tom Yawkey, was renamed to Jersey Street.

Answer 3

Well, things can get messy very quickly, nowadays when they name a street for someone, they go all out with the full name of the person being honored.  Like the former Dorchester blvd in Montréal was renamed René-Lévesque blvd.  But when you get into older street names, they don't include given name, like Dorchester blvd, to keep to the same example, that was actually named after a former colony governor, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Carleton,_1st_Baron_Dorchester which is not obvious to an outsider.  And they rename streets regularly, so you would lose your relevance.  

A lot of work, and many street names are obviously named for somebody, but who it was exactly takes a whole mess of research, not always productive either.  For example there is a Garnier street in Montréal, now which Garnier was it named after?  Duh, I dunno.