I too get frustrated by of people working in genealogy who have no clue as to the history. Examples are someone who had their family coming to America in the early 1800's on a "Cruise" ship. I believe if their ancestor knew what we consider a Cruise Ship they would have a different opinion. Another was a family that came to America in the same time period on a "Steamer". Steam did not come into use for ocean travel until many years later. However the area where a family lived is ever changing, and new areas are being created. West Virginia was created in during the Civil war. Arizona did not exist until the 1900's, but a lot of things occurred there prior to it becoming "Arizona". Sometimes the best way to describe where a family lived is to describe a territory by a later name. My ancestors came into the military district of Fort Wayne (The fort not the city). Allen County the location of Fort Wayne the city did not come into existence until 1824. It is easier to talk about them being in Allen Co, even though it did not exist, rather than saying they lived in the Military District of Fort Wayne which encompassed most of northern Indiana. Another area is Broome Co New York. My ancestors were in the area from about 1800 through the mid 1820's. It is easier to say they got married in Broome Co. rather than Tioga which is a significantly larger area. . While Chester Co had defined limits in 1851, the boundaries of Lancaster defined where it began, but the western end was not well defined and encompassed most of western Pennsylvania. Even to say they lived in Berks in 1852, does not say a lot, as it, like Lancaster, had its northern, eastern, and southern limits define but it stretch westward to an undefined border some where in western Pennsylvania. Family lore has one ancestor being born in "Lebanon" Pennsylvania. To the best of my research they never lived in Lebanon co or city, but lived in Reading and Philadelphia where their parents died. I believe the confusion comes from an old usage of geographic descriptions. Reading is what is called the Great Valley. It stretches from Georgia to New England. The area where Reading is located is in the portion called the Lebanon Valley. I suspect that some people of Philadelphia still refereed to that western region as the Lebanon Valley and over the generation the Valley got cut from where the boys were born. I don't know a solution to historical accuracy verse the need to know where your ancestors lived, but I think we have to cut some slack on this one Guns get blamed in shootings because the liberals say teaching the Ten Commandments with "Thou shall not kill" violate the separation of Church and State. On 1/2/2013 12:30 PM, gc-gateway@rootsweb.com wrote: > This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. > > Author: RobertCGoodyearA > Surnames: > Classification: queries > > Message Board URL: > > http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.northam.usa.states.pennsylvania.counties.berks/9695.2.2.1.1/mb.ashx > > Message Board Post: > > Correct. Berks County was established (erected) in 1752 from parts of Lancaster, Philadelphia and Chester Counties. > > My point was addressed to someone who claimed that Johann Georg Ludwig settled in erks County prior to 1752. > > Any documentation prior to 1752, such as ships manifests that claim a Johann Georg Ludwig(ck) came from the Palatinate into Philadelphia, and states his final destination was Berks County is absolutely incorrect. > > It is not known whether the person who wrote that, incorrectly transcribed it from the original ships manifest after 1752, or if he was just illiterate and uneducated. > > Important Note: > The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board. > > > > ==== PABERKS Mailing List ==== > PABERKS@rootsweb.com > > To contact the List Administrator: > Rick Berkheiser, PABERKS-admin@rootsweb.com > > To visit the Berks Message Board: > http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec?htx=board&r=rw&p=localities.northam.usa.states.pennsylvania.counties.berks > > To visit the Berks County, PA website: > http://www.pa-roots.com/~berks/ > Hosted by Nancy Freehafer > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to PABERKS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >