I agree with KJ, except that instead of saying "either" Historical or place of record vs Current, you could record the fact twice and do both.
When it comes to the pre-colonial thing, I forget about it and use the USA. The new heirarchal ability is dependent on using a county is one reason. Another is when I go to place and look for people that lived in Boston - I want all of them. I don't want to worry about some were born before the revolution, married after the revolution, died after the revolution - you will soon be driving yourself crazy with trying to figure all that and then all the people won't be in one spot in the Places Workspace - the people will be in one of two places - or in both, because they were born before the Revolution and died after. And one spouse might be born pre-Revolution and the other born after Revolution.
That said, I do distinguish folks with locations in the Oklahoma and Dakota Territories - especially when the record (ie census) shows it that way.
The real frustrating one is the VA to KY or West Va switch. I have given up on West Virginia and use West Virginia for pre Civil War places in WV. KY places that were in VA before statehood, I use whatever the record shows.
Kind of uneven I guess, but I kind of let the situation guide me to my practice.
I do wish all Facts were four parts: Date, Place of Record or history, current location, description. It still won't be perfect. There were giant counties in many states that eventually were broken down into smaller ones and you simply don't know if the people moved or not when the county of record changed - I just go with the place of record in those cases.
When it comes to the pre-colonial thing, I forget about it and use the USA. The new heirarchal ability is dependent on using a county is one reason. Another is when I go to place and look for people that lived in Boston - I want all of them. I don't want to worry about some were born before the revolution, married after the revolution, died after the revolution - you will soon be driving yourself crazy with trying to figure all that and then all the people won't be in one spot in the Places Workspace - the people will be in one of two places - or in both, because they were born before the Revolution and died after. And one spouse might be born pre-Revolution and the other born after Revolution.
That said, I do distinguish folks with locations in the Oklahoma and Dakota Territories - especially when the record (ie census) shows it that way.
The real frustrating one is the VA to KY or West Va switch. I have given up on West Virginia and use West Virginia for pre Civil War places in WV. KY places that were in VA before statehood, I use whatever the record shows.
Kind of uneven I guess, but I kind of let the situation guide me to my practice.
I do wish all Facts were four parts: Date, Place of Record or history, current location, description. It still won't be perfect. There were giant counties in many states that eventually were broken down into smaller ones and you simply don't know if the people moved or not when the county of record changed - I just go with the place of record in those cases.