Locations can create all kinds of problems for genealogists. For this reason it is necessary to be as precise as possible. Some locations are logical.
For example, Knoxville, Illinois, is in Knox County, Illinois.
But this is not always the case.
Des Moines, Iowa, is in Polk County, not in Des Moines County, Iowa.
Keokuk, Iowa, is not located in Keokuk County, Iowa.
And remember there are townships as well which may or may not add to the confusion. Hancock County, Illinois, has a Webster Cemetery and a village of Webster. Webster cemetery is not located near the village of Webster.
Provide as much detail as possible when listing locations in your genealogical database. Personally I always use the word “county” in a location. It reduces confusion.
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Chester, PA is in Delaware County, not Chester County.
Washington Court House, Ohio, is the county seat of Fayette County. Marietta is the county seat of Washington County, Ohio.
Watertown, WI is in Jefferson AND Dodge counties. Our genealogical society covers both.
In determining your Location thru the years on an Ancestor there are other factors then Town and County to keep in mind. Important is what year was that Ancestor located there? It is perhaps more helpful to look at a Map (actually important) for that year and compare it with a Map today. It is possible that the name of the village/hamlet in that Town your looking for no longer exists or is known under a new name and that’s why you can’t find it or the Church and Cemetery. It makes it very difficult to locate a Settlement Land record, Birth, Baptismal, Marriage or Death location for your early ancestors. It is also possible it isn’t even in the same County anymore. Remember Counties were added at different years. I personally always list the location for my Ancestor as it was in the year they were located there and then make a footnote showing the updated location as it is today. Here is an example of changes through the years on a Location in New York State. The Village and Town of Boonville New York had a number of changes through the forming years. Yes, even the County has changed 3 times. Settlement began around 1794. The Town of Leyden, Lewis County New York was formed from the Town of Steuben (in Oneida County, New York) in 1797. Leyden formed part of a tract called the “Inman Triangle.” The Town of Leyden Lewis County New York gave up much of its territory to form new towns such as the Towns of Watson (1851) and Lewis (1852). Leyden was also partitioned to form the Towns of Brownville (Jefferson County in 1802) and Boonville (Oneida County in 1805), and part of the Town of Wilma (Jefferson County in 1813). Looking for vitals or church records on your early settlers located in the Village or the Town of Boonville today might be listed under another Town, and as in this case (also note the other Towns stated) even another County. One could easily be researching in the wrong Town or County for that Ancestors Information.
In upstate NY, some areas are called towns which most of us would call townships. Within the “towns” there are villages, sometimes with substantial populations. Just to add to the confusion, there are counties, of course. Also anyone who lives here knows that the official name of the city is New York, not New York City. Most people who live in Rochester, Syracuse, Buffalo, etc say that they live in New York State.
Although this is for current information, I use the locality finder on Rootsweb. If it is a township, it will not show the county, so I know it is a township which I record as a township. It only will show the county for a city or town.
Kendall County, Illinois, has several duplicated names which a researcher really needs to know exist before getting too confused. A small town in the northwest corner is called “Little Rock” (Village) while the area in which it sits is “Little Rock Township”. Listing all the folks who lived in the village early on…and all those who farmed in the Township instead, makes quite a population that can “correctly” be referred to as residents of Little Rock.
Even more confusing is the village of Yorkville. It was entirely on the south side of the Fox River. If you went to do business with a shop on the north side of the Fox River, you were trading in Bristol. Down the road to the north, and a bit east, was the place where the train stopped on its way to Chicago. That town was called Bristol Station. In the meantime all the farmers north of the river and south of the county line were in the township of Bristol. It was about 1959! before Yorkville and Bristol became one city (using the name of United City of Yorkville.) Bristol Station does not have a depot/train stop anymore, and since there is no Bristol, Bristol Station became plain ordinary Bristol. Bristol Township still is Bristol Township.
New comers, for some reason, get a bit confused over all these Bristols…but they make good sense to those who have been in the area for 150 years or so.
There is a great “map of Illinois” online that shows which county was where, when. I’m from Plano in Kendall County…and, if I recall correctly, we were the “possession” of 26 different places during the years (starting long before we became Kendall County in 1841. Illinois was settled from the bottom (Ohio River/Mississippi’s south end) up. Residents were required to consider themselves in the county that they had most recently been declared a part of. And they had to file paperwork in the county seat there of. At one point, there was a narrow little strip that came down from the Wisconsin line to the bottom quarter (my guess without the map in front of me) and the county seat was where the most people were…down at the south end, of course. Thus those who were beginning to settle the far northern portion of the state would have to go 3/4 the length of the state to file any records. Is it any wonder that some records didn’t get filed?!? Even the area north of Plano and Sandwich, just below the original area of Chicago, where Route 34 is now, was at one time in the state of Wisconsin. There is a whole set of maps of the state online showing which county was in charge of a particular area and the dates thereof. Using that info makes a great topic of interest for a genealogy group meeting too!