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From Muscatelli Genealogy Wiki

[edit] Locations - Place names

While the place names of an ancestor’s residence or location of their life events are certainly core element of a genealogist's quest, they can often be confusing. Place names may be subject to variant spellings by partially literate scribes. Additionally, locations may have the same or substantially similar names. For example, the name Brocton for villages occurs six times in the border area between the English counties of Shropshire and Staffordshire. Shifts in political borders must also be understood. For instance, county borders in C17th-C19th England were frequently modified, with outlying and detached areas being reassigned to other counties. Old records may contain references to Middle Age villages that have ceased to exist due to disease or famine.

Many sources provide locations for our ancestor’s life events and place of residency; these include vital records (civil registration), censuses, and tax assessments. Oral tradition is also an important source, although it must be used with caution. When no source information is available for a birth, death or marriage location, circumstantial evidence may provide a probable answer based on the place of residence of the individual or the individual’s family at the time of the event.

Maps and gazetteers are important sources for understanding the places where our ancestors were born, lived, married, and died. They show us the relationship of the area to neighboring communities and may help us understand migration patterns.

You can now insert Google Maps into your post. We suggest you do this so visitors can easily view the location you are referring to. For instance, below I am displaying a map of the 'White House' in Washington D.C.