FTM2012 - Place Name - Independent City

This is to share something learned today.

While cleaning up my Place Names, moving to the new format, I took a moment to find out what I was having an issue with Baltimore, Maryland and Richmond Virginia. Each time, I need to use the "county" call Independent City.

Once Independent City was chosen, the place names and locations worked as they should. Up until I looked into this, I had thought that at least Baltimore was within Baltimore County. Then I ran into Richmond, Virginia, then I had to look this up.

My choice was do a Google Search, which really didn't help, looking a city websites. Then I looked at Wikipedia. Reading about Baltimore and Richmond really didn't help, specifically, so I did a search for "Independent City". Here is a link to what Wikipedia has to say:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_city_%28United_States%29#Other_states

 That told be why Baltimore and Richmond use "Independent City" as the "county". It very helpful when I have places in Baltimore County.

An independent city is not the same as a consolidated city-county. This points out why Philadelphia will be included in the County of Philadelphia.

Lesson Learned: Check out terms used within the Place Name Authority of the Family Tree Maker program.

_______________________________________________________________

Copyright © 2012 by H R Worthington