Editing Genealogy (section)

===Place names===
While the locations of ancestors' residences and life events are core elements of the genealogist's quest, they can often be confusing. Place names may be subject to variant spellings by partially literate scribes. Locations may have identical or very similar names. For example, the village name [[Brockton (disambiguation)|Brockton]] occurs six times in the border area between the English counties of [[Shropshire]] and [[Staffordshire]]. Shifts in political borders must also be understood. Parish, county, and national borders have frequently been modified. Old records may contain references to farms and villages that have ceased to exist. When working with older records from Poland, where borders and place names have changed frequently in past centuries, a source with maps and sample records such as ''[[A Translation Guide to 19th-Century Polish-Language Civil-Registration Documents]]'' can be invaluable.

Available sources may include vital records (civil or church registration), censuses, and tax assessments. Oral tradition is also an important source, although it must be used with caution. When no source information is available for a location, circumstantial evidence may provide a probable answer based on a person's or a family's place of residence at the time of the event.

Maps and gazetteers are important sources for understanding the places researched. They show the relationship of an area to neighboring communities and may be of help in understanding migration patterns. [[Family tree mapping]] using online mapping tools such as [[Google Earth]] (particularly when used with Historical Map overlays such as those from the [[David Rumsey Historical Map Collection]]) assist in the process of understanding the significance of geographical locations.