<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" http-equiv=Content-Type> <STYLE type=text/css>DIV { MARGIN: 0px } </STYLE> <META name=GENERATOR content="MSHTML 8.00.6001.18975"></HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV>Funny, but I was thinking of writing a message saying exactly that. We keep referring to GPS coordinates, but originally I was saying degrees of latitude and longitude.  I prefer to think of them that way (latitude and longitude) rather than "GPS coordinates"</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>But you have said it more clearly than I would have done anyway.  It isn't just something to do with GPS devices at all.  And odds are they will never change.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Larry</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>----- Original Message ----- </DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px" dir=ltr> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial; BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=stephen@stephendanko.com href="mailto:stephen@stephendanko.com">Stephen Danko</A> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=apgpubliclist@apgen.org href="mailto:apgpubliclist@apgen.org">apgpubliclist@apgen.org</A> ; <A title=apgmembersonlylist@apgen.org href="mailto:apgmembersonlylist@apgen.org">apgmembersonlylist@apgen.org</A> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, October 27, 2010 6:20 PM</DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: [APG Public List] [APG Members] place names</DIV> <DIV><BR></DIV> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: times new roman, new york, times, serif; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV>One thing to realize about the coordinates that can be obtained from either Google Maps or a GPS device is that the numbers refer to degrees latitude and longitude.  Unless mathematicians decide to change the number of degrees in a circle or cartographers decide to change the location of the equator or the prime meridian, the actual latitude and longitude of a place won't change even when GPS technology changes.  Furthermore, these coordinates can be used to find locations on both electronic maps and paper maps (such as US Topo Maps) that display the latitude and longitude.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Kind regards,</DIV> <DIV>Stephen J. Danko</DIV> <DIV><A href="http://www.stephendanko.com/">http://www.stephendanko.com/</A></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: times new roman, new york, times, serif; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: times new roman, new york, times, serif; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><FONT size=2 face=Tahoma> <HR SIZE=1> <B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">From:</SPAN></B> Mark Rabideau <genealogy@eirenicon.org><BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">To:</SPAN></B> Janice Sellers <janicemsj@gmail.com><BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Cc:</SPAN></B> apgpubliclist Posting <apgpubliclist@apgen.org>; jhrabideau@gmail.com; apgmembersonlylist@apgen.org; becky@pep-inc.com<BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Sent:</SPAN></B> Wed, October 27, 2010 9:24:18 AM<BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Subject:</SPAN></B> Re: [APG Members] [APG Public List] place names<BR></FONT><BR>It is probably worth noting that commerical GPS is really only about 10 years old and is primarily a US national system for establishing global location. To quote the ever popular WIkipedia "GPS is owned and operated by the U.S. Government as a national resource."   As new GPS systems develop, there is likely to be change in nomenclature and other characteristics, as competing & complimentary global positioning systems reconcile and move towards international standards (at least that is how everything else seems to work in the technology realm).  It is worth noting that there are at least two competing and one non-competing GPS system online or soon to be online- competing systems will be from the Chinese (Compass) and Europe Galileo (Europe); the non-competing system is a Russian military system.<BR><BR>To me the biggest benefit of the current US GPS is that it makes the use of Google Earth and the like for genealogy software packages possible.  But to my mind, maps continue to be a more stable and reliable long-term form of locational documentation for genealogical purposes. </DIV></DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>