Can we find a different emblem for this template memorial?

Question

Hi all, I am requesting that someone please find a different marker than the stars & stripes for this template.

 

-{{Migrating Ancestor

-| origin = England

-| destination = America

-| origin-flag = Flags-3.jpg

-| destination-flag = Flags-4.jpg

-}}

 

These memorials are being removed from profiles (not by me!) because the U.S. flag was not in use during the 1600s and early 1700s.  Maybe someone could replace the American flag with an image of North America or the English Colonies. The current memorials are being removed from profiles because use of the U.S. flag is historically inaccurate during the colonial period.  

 

This came to my attention because this memorial was removed from this profile: http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Smith-7462  

 

I think we can agree that the U.S. flag was not in use during colonial times, so we need to replace it with something more representative of the time period.  Perhaps an outline map of western Europe showing the British Isles, France and Spain and an outline map of eastern North America showing New France, New Spain and the British Colonies.  Maybe someone has a better idea, I just don't like to see someone's work being deleted from the profiles.  Thank you!  Kitty Cooper-1 Smith 

Answer 1

There is no need for the whole template to be removed from a profile just because the flag is wrong; it just needs to be updated. (In this case, destination=America should be changed from America to whatever the name of the place was at the time, eg. a state or colony name, and destination-flag=Flags-4.jpg needs to be changed to a different file name.)

There is a space page with colonial American flags here. Would any of those images be more accurate? Obviously it'll vary by profile, depending on where and when they lived. There are also state flag images here.

Comments

Thank you, Lianne.  I think someone that actually uses the template should consider making the changes.  I don't use it myself.  I thought it was posted somewhere for general use.

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Flags did not come into use a national symbols until the late 18th-early 19th centuries. Previous, they were for the most part military and maritime in nature,  That makes for a problem for us trying to be historically accurate for colonial immigrants.  Most states did not offically adopt a flag until the turn of the 20th century. There is a little more info in Category:Flag Images.

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To clarify, the template itself does not need editing. It's only the way the template is entered on the profile that needs to change.

Personally, I don't mind using flags that weren't in use at the time, as long as they represent a place that existed at the time. Eg. I would normally use the current Canadian flag to represent Canada all the way back to Confederation in 1867 (but not before, because Canada didn't exist before that), even though that flag wasn't adopted until 1965. And we use the Acadian flag for the Acadians, even though that flag is a modern invention that the original Acadians would never have seen.