This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Shirey Scheibach Hamann Kliemchen Classification: queries Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.northam.usa.states.wisconsin.counties.fonddulac/1338.4/mb.ashx Message Board Post: A previous reply to your message said, "Part of Beloit (city) is located in Beloit Township and part of Beloit is in Turtle Township." That is not technically correct; it should have been Town of Beloit and Town of Turtle. There is a difference between a "town" and a "township"; and Beloit and Turtle are towns, not townships. See the following from Winnebagoland Roots, vol. 20, no. 2 (June 2006), Winnebagoland Genealogical Society (i.e., for Oshkosh and Winnebago County, Wisconsin), by Robert Wertsch, Town of Wolf River attorney: "A town is an unincorporated governmental unit. A township is a geographical unit of land measurement. Sometimes the twains meet - sometimes not. All areas in the State of Wisconsin are either in a Town, City, or Village [which do not overlap]. A township is a land surveying unit. It is a square, six miles on a side. It consists of 36 square miles and contains 36 sections, each one mile square. It does not have a name. [Repeat: Townships in Wisconsi! n do not hve names!!] It is designated by how far it is north of the Wisconsin-Illinois border and how far east or west of the 4h principal meridian. This meridian runs a little west of Madison. In many states townships are both unit of government and of Land survey. Not so here [i.e., not so in Wisconsin]. Wisconsin borrowed the Town concept of government from New York where they do not have townships. Example: In Winnebago County, the Town of Black Wolf would be so small because of Lake Winnebago [i.e., some parts of the six-by-six square are underwater] that it [was] set up to include six square miles of what would otherwise have been in the Town of Nekimi. So Nekimi governs an area of on 30 square miles. On the other hand, the Town of Clayton governs a full 36 square mile area - an entire township. We, in the Town of Wolf river, can accurately say that we live in either Township 20 North, Range 14 East or in the Town of Wolf River. There is NO Wolf River Township or Tow! nship of Wolf River." Similarly, there is no Beloit Township and no Tu rtle Township.