Tips for Members Who Are Editing High-Level US Place Categories on Profiles [closed]

Question

1. Use the new Category format button to determine if multiple categories with similar names exist. Tip 1 will help with Tip 2!

2. Note that some place names are townships, not towns, and that the citation may not include the word "township."

edit: Not all townships have categories, so you may need to defer to the county.

Beyond that, keep up the good work!!

Comments

Add the usa tag please. It is kind of misleading...

Answer 1

Township categories for US states are not all set up. If you need to add one, the format is [[Category:XXXTownship, XXXCounty, XXXState]] so [[Category:Jefferson Township, Allen County, Indiana]]. Michigan and New Jersey have charter townships and those have the same set up, but add the word Charter. [[Category:XXXCharter Township, XXXCounty,XXXState]].

Thank you, Lindy!

Comments

New York has "Military Townships" which are not civil (government) jurisdictions but were "real estate" descriptions for awarding land as payment for service during the Revolutionary War.

Towns (the governmental organization) were often created using the same boundaries and same name, such as Ovid. The Town of Ovid was transferred  between counties and later divided into what today are the Towns of Ovid, Covert, and Lodi, while the Military Township name still remains today as part of the location description in deeds of land.

Military Township being used as a location description should be included in the biographical text on a WikiTree profile, not in the profile's database, i.e., birth,death, or marriage place name

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Good to know, Walter!

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Just in case it isn't clear:

Some of Michigan's townships (about 1/8) are charter townships, not all.

Charter townships have more power than non-charter townships, so the designation only explicitly implies a stronger local government. Implicitly, it implies that the (charter) township has a high enough population and tax base to merit a stronger local government.

Some communities choose to remain a charter township for political reasons (often related to taxation) even when they become highly (sub)urbanized and are widely thought of informally as cities. For example, the charter townships of Clinton and Canton each have over 90k people and are the 10th and 11th largest communities in the state.

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Good information to know, Thomas. Thanks!

I try to stay out of "that state up north" though, since I am a Buckeye! 

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I usually steer clear of Buckeyes myself - unless you mean the Buckeye treats! Best thing that ever came out of Ohio. 

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They are pretty darned tasty! (But please don't eat the real ones.)

And these things: https://matadornetwork.com/life/21-great-things-ohio-gave-us-one-bad-thing/

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I'm not familiar with US designations of town, township and village, so am not prepared to make or edit categories about them. Profile WIlliam Whittaker  says he lived in Town of Brooklyn, Green County, Wisconsin in the 1850 census. Category Brooklyn, Wisconsin says it is for the Village of Brooklyn, and the linked village website says the village was not established until 1902, so I assume that is not where William lived 50 years earlier,as the town and village have distinct Wikipedia articles.

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooklyn,_Green_County,_Wisconsin
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooklyn_(village),_Wisconsin

Could someone who understands please correct either the category or the tag on this profile? (He has a wife and daughter who need the same category once I know what is right)

Thank you.

  Scott

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Wisconsin has towns, not townships. It sounds like many towns (pretty sure Brooklyn was) were once townships. So geographically they are laid out like townships mostly but their political governing structure is more like the "town  system" of New York or New England.

The Town of Brooklyn is (most of) a 36 square mile area that is mostly rural. The village is a little corner of it that is slightly more built up and has slightly more government services. If the village wasn't incorporated until 1902 - don't assign it. It sounds like Green County, Wisconsin needs a separate sub-category for the town.

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Thank you Thomas.

Someone who knows about these things needs to look at Category:Brooklyn, Wisconsin. It presently has

• William Whittaker who lived in Town of Brooklyn in the 1850 census.
• Alvin D. Webster, born in Brooklyn, Dane County, Wisconsin in 1900 with no further info about where he grew up, but he died in 1918 in Illinois
• Category:Attica, Wisconsin which is an unincorporated community in the town of Brooklyn, Green County, Wisconsin
• External links to Wikipedia Brooklyn (village) article and Brooklyn Village website both say it was established in 1905.

This thread is tagged Categorization, so hopefully someone who follows that might also know about Wisconsin categories. Either the category is about the village, and William and Attica should be removed, or it's about the town so the external links should be changed and Alvin should probably be removed.

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You're welcome.