Where is British Colonial America? What do we mean by standardization?

Fantasy World

Some of the online genealogy family tree programs suggest geographic locations when a user begins to enter information into an entry that calls for a place where an event occurred. In the case of FamilySearch.org, the suggested places are entitled "Standardized Place." The FamilySearch.org Help Center has an article entitled,  "How do I enter dates and places into Family Tree?" The first sentence reads:

Using standard formats for dates and places in Family Tree improves the accuracy and searchability of the information you enter.

The article goes on to explain how to enter dates and place standards. However, there is also a statement that says the following:

The database of standard places is not yet complete. The standards will improve over time.

It is a physical reality that every event in a person's life occurs within a specific location. Technically, that location could be identified by a geocoordinate system. But genealogy is history and history deals with records and documents that record events. The main activity of genealogical research is discovering the history, as recorded in those records and documents, of individuals and families. There is a one to one correspondence between genealogy and records and documents. Human memory is fallible and evanescent, without documents knowledge of our ancestors would soon disappear notwithstanding the preservation of oral histories. Many people I deal with cannot tell me the full names of their own grandparents and it is very unusual to find anyone who can tell me more than a few names of their great-grandparents. 

Although I have written about the subject many times, it seems that what I write is never enough. Discovering the information that does exist about individuals and families in the past is the main challenge of genealogical research. The key to this discovery process is a systematic investigation of existing records and documents and proceeding individual by individual, generation by generation documenting every possible event in each person's life. The entire research process depends on accurately discovering the exact location of specific events. What is this the case?

Here is the rule again. Genealogically significant documents and records are created at or near the time and place of an event by someone who either witnessed the event or has some duty to report the event. Records and documents created at either a time or place that is removed from the actual event tend to be less reliable than those that are created at or near the place and time of the event. These rules are not absolute but accurate genealogical research depends on connecting the place of the event with possible existing records and documents. 

For example, if my ancestor's name was Thomas Parkinson and that was all I knew about him, where would I find records and documents concerning his life? Think about it. Where would you begin to look? How about just picking anyone with the name of Thomas Parkinson and choosing that person to be your ancestor? What are the chances that you would make a valid guess? I might mention that this is just about the level of some genealogical research that I frequently run into. 

Now, what about standardization? The list of possible locations in the world is practically endless. For example, how many mailing addresses do you think there are in the world? In addition, how many geographic place designations are there in the world? How many places in the world can billions of people be born, married, and die? Now, why would anyone try to "standardize" all that information? Good question. 

Before going on too much further, I need to remind everyone of two genealogy standards. First, place names should reflect the name of the place at the time of the event, and place names should always begin with the smallest geographic or jurisdictional area. 

If I go back to the statement I copied at the beginning of this post, the reasons for standardization are accuracy and searchability. Accuracy is good but who needs searchability? Well, we all do but we do not need to sacrifice accuracy for searchability. Right now, with a database of standards that is far from complete, adding a standard may actually result in a loss of information. I am talking about the standardization of place names, not dates. Dates are relatively straightforward and subject to standardization but places are not. Here is an example from the FamilySearch.org Family Tree.

Birth  27 July 1757 Hopkinton, Kings, Rhode Island, British Colonial America

This is a standardized place with a standardized date but the question is, is it accurate? The process of determining the accuracy of the place names includes researching each level of the jurisdictional place named to see when they were originally established. It evident that before the European immigrants came to America, none of these "places" had European derived names. OK, here we go with the research. You will likely find the results rather messy.

Hopkinton is a town in the present location of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (the official name of the state). Quoting from Wikipedia: Hopkinton, Rhode Island: "Hopkinton is named after Stephen Hopkins, a signer of the Declaration of Independence who was governor of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations when the town was partitioned from Westerly and incorporated in March, 1757. Hopkinton consists of four villages, Ashaway, Bradford, Hope Valley, and Rockville. Rhode Island (Remember the Official name is the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations) was granted statehood on May 4, 1776. Notice the birthdate above, 27 July 1757. Kings County was created in 1729. Hopkinton is presently in Washington County but Kings County was renamed Washington County in 1781. So, yes, Hopkinton was in Kings County in 1757 but the birthdate could be before Hopkinton was incorporated. 

Now, what about "British Colonial America?" Well, there is no such place with that name. As you can see from the research explanation, the name of the Colony was the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. Why do we need another colony designation? The Colonies are known as The Thirteen Colonies or The Thirteen British Colonies or the Thirteen American Colonies or technically they were part of Great Britain and could also be called the British American Colonies. As I have pointed out previously on this topic, why is there no Spanish Colonial America or French Colonial America? The real answer is that none of these names were actual names at the time the colonies existed. 

So where was the person born on the date of 27 July 1757 actually born? Want to take a try at coming up with the most accurate name? Is the Hopkinton, Kings, Rhode Island, British Colonial America name accurate?