[APG Public List] [APG Members] place names

[LBoswell]

Then you add an explanation, the same as you would have to do with the 
location names alone.  Plus you can then give the existing location's 
coordinates paired with the original ones.

To get the GPS coordinates you don't need to actually go wander the highway 
ramp!  I don't want to get anyone killed here!  Just kidding.  You can 
obtain them a few different ways just sitting at your computer, safe from 
speeding cars!  In the case you describe you'd not be able to be absolutely 
specific, but then you couldn't be specific even just using the old ways of 
place name and map.

Obviously, in various scenarios you have to play the usefulness of trying to 
approximate a location whether by text description and names, or by text, 
name, and approximate coordinates.  You might say that it was thought to be 
in this general area, and then give general coordinates.  I have the same 
problem with my grandfather's house in Montreal which now has 12 lane 
freeway where it once stood.  But I know it's location within a 4 or 5 city 
blocks, so I mark it with less specific coordinates, and an explanation 
(have the advantage of also having pictures of it)

Again I think there's a basic misunderstanding about how these could be used 
and the potential they hold.  Most of the arguments against using them seem 
to forget that the "traditional" names and explanations would also be used. 
These things just extend the options to allow more interactive features with 
various programs including mapping

But just as in the case of named locations, there are times when really you 
don't know enough to place it in a given location by any means!  So of 
course under that circumstance how could you find its coordinates?
Larry
  ----- Original Message ----- 


  From: Debra Mieszala
  To: apgpubliclist Posting ; apgmembersonlylist at apgen.org
  Sent: Wednesday, October 27, 2010 12:26 PM
  Subject: Re: [APG Public List] [APG Members] place names


        Some places and things move. Some move geologically, such as after a 
powerful earthquake. Others pick up and physically and politically move to 
an entirely new location, such as after a natural disaster, because of the 
construction of a dam or railroad line, removal of an entire cemetery (or 
was it simply the stones that were moved?), etc.

        I lived in a house that was moved due to construction of a highway 
ramp. It was planted miles away, near the site of an early settler's 
long-gone home, but the house had nothing to do with him. Descendants of the 
family that did live in the house before it moved could be erroneously led 
to think it was always in its present location, if anybody knew the house by 
sight alone and jotted down GPS coordinates for it's current place on the 
globe. Certainly the building is there, but to obtain GPS coordinates of the 
place where it was when the people who built it lived in it would require 
wandering in a highway ramp with a very old codger who might recall where it 
once stood. What matters is where somebody or something was when. Unless the 
present location is relevant, what is needed is the actual (old) location, 
and that is where I feel accuracy can be an issue. Like any other piece of 
information, how certain are you about what you record? Certainty does not 
equate accuracy.

        GPS technology is fun and amazing. Using it in a personal work is a 
nice addition, depending on the circumstances of the use. But should people 
who may not understand the technology and any possible limitations (an 
example is the intricacy of how to denote a larger location like a township) 
use it as a resource for others? Especially beyond giving something simple 
like the GPS coordinates of a gravestone?

        Debbie Mieszala, CG(sm)
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