Location, Location, Location

What is a location in regards to Genealogy research?

Honestly, about thirteens years ago I learned the answer to this question when I moved to a small town in Iowa.

I started volunteering at the Nodaway Historical Society Museum which had gotten it's start with a group of ladies trying preserve the past in Page County Iowa.  These ladies would clip obituaries for people who lived in the surrounding communities and counties.  They then found the funding to open a great museum and great genealogy resource.

While volunteering there I had the opportunity to learn lots of things about genealogy and geography.  
Most of us only think of location in the USA as:  City, County, State when in actuality most states use a form or another of Townships; which makes City, Township, County, State, USA.  So if we go to the back to the Nodaway Historical Society Museum is in Clarinda, Page County, Iowa, USA but its full location is:  Clarinda, Nodaway Township, Page County, Iowa, USA or Clarinda, Nodaway Township, Page, Iowa.  If there is no city the location is always simply:  Nodaway Township, Page County, Iowa, USA

A common mistake when people document location is believing that a Township is a town or vice versa.  When I come across a town I do not know even after decades of doing genealogy, I always do search of the location.  I am never positive what I will find, but usually there is not a town or ghost town by that name it is a township or even things as a mill. Yes, there are towns named after a mill or the owner of the Mill these will show up as a city if they are.  So when in doubt, always search for the location if it's someplace you have never heard of.  I use Google and/or Wikipedia when I check location.

Let's all help each other to try and keep he facts correct as possible.

Happy digging up your ancestors!