[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Powiat maps of Russian Poland

[Jutta Dennerlein]

Karl, I recently had a discussion with another genealogist how likely it
would be that an English speaking Census Taker would write down
'Friedrichsburg' when a German immigrant gave his place of birth as
'Friedrichsberg' using a heavy German accent and trying to speak English.
So I just tried to imagine what kind of data you would find today if your
ancestors would have answered "(Kustanai) Qostanay, Kazakhstan" as their
origin :)

I think it is a good idea to enter the current country. But then the world
keeps changing and even your carefully researched data can only be
interpreted in a correct way if it is dated information. Anyone using your
data in 50 years time might have the same difficulties locating the places
if he/she doesn't consider the fact that you entered the data in 2004 and
that he/she will need an (old) map of that time period to find the place.
Maybe adding the geographical coordinates would be a good option?

Jutta

-----Original Message-----
From: ger-poland-volhynia-bounces at eclipse.sggee.org
[mailto:ger-poland-volhynia-bounces at eclipse.sggee.org]On Behalf Of Karl
Krueger
Sent: Thursday, March 18, 2004 5:02 AM
To: Peter Fischer
Cc: ger-poland-volhynia
Subject: Re: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Powiat maps of Russian Poland


>Secondly, many
>people that post ancestral information simply put Germany or Poland, etc.
down
>as a birthplace. It would be the same as stating North America for any of
us
>over on this side of the pond.

>I guess its just a pet peeve of mine

Well that's a pet peeve of mine too but unfortunately many times all we have
to go on is what others know, and this may be all they know. If they had no
interest in genealogy they would not realize the importance of giving
specific information. Another good example I see all the time is Germans who
listed their parent's death location in EWZ as Russland. When you translate
that into our current geography that could mean Russia, Belarus, Ukraine,
Kazakhstan, and as was just confirmed to me this week Uzbekistan. So at the
time, any cities I find in these EWZ records would have been the Soviet
Union but many times that gives readers little idea of where that location
is.

To help out anyone in the future using the data I enter, I have been
entering the current country just so they know where to find this city.
"Russland" is a vast land where even some genealogists might get lost just
as many Germans did. "Kustanai, Russland" really tells you nothing but
"(Kustanai) Qostanay, Kazakhstan" immediately tells how far this family was
displaced and where you need to look for this bizarre city.

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