Event locations should be recorded as what their names were then

As we celebrate Christmas today, we note that the Bible states that Bethlehem was in Judea, at the time of Jesus birth. If one put that location into some genealogy websites, it would update the same to the current location of Palestine, West Bank, 6 miles from Jerusalem.

In looking recently at Ancestry.com, I noted that a man’s 1856 marriage was recorded as being in Fulton County, yet it was not in the very complete book of that county’s marriages. It turned out the marriage had taken place in Campbell County, which existed from 1828 until 1931 when it merged with Fulton. While its record books were taken to the Fulton County Courthouse, one should not by any stretch combine the two counties before then for historical purposes.

Some lineage societies are doing the same thing, updating a rural county birth to having been in the city because the city and county have merged, such as in Columbus/Muscogee, Macon/Bibb and Augusta/ Richmond. Again, the birth or other event should be recorded as happening in the legal entity existing for that piece of land at the time of the event.

Bethlehem has gone through a lot of conquerors, from the Romans to the Crusaders, the Ottoman Turks, and after World War I, the British mandate of Palestine. Anyone writing about it for any one of those eras would need to note that, as anyone striving for accuracy should do in their own genealogy research.

TOPIC: GENEALOGY AWARDS

The Georgia Genealogical Society recently presented its annual awards, and among them were: The Georgia Room of the Cobb County Library System at the Switzer Library in Marietta received the “Contribution to Genealogy in Georgia Award.” The Georgia Room is a misnomer, as it contains a vast amount of genealogy materials from all the Southern states, not just Georgia. A “Certificate of Recognition” went to the Metro-Atlanta Chapter of the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society for hosting the national conference in Atlanta this past October of their parent organization. See aahgsatl. org for more on their meetings and projects.

TOPIC: HIGHLIGHTS FOR 2017

As 2016 draws to a close, we note that 2017 will bring the IGHR (Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research) to Athens, Ga., July 23-28 and that the National Genealogical Society will meet in Raleigh May 10-13. For more on each of these meetings see gagensociety.org and the IGHR link, or go to ngsgenealogy.org for their conference schedule that has just been posted, as well as their many other educational activities and publications. Their State Research Series contains booklets for many states, worth checking into.

Contact Kenneth H. Thomas Jr., P.O.Box 901, Decatur, GA 30031 or gagensociety.org.