Category: Washington, District of Columbia or District of Columbia

Question

As I am working through cemeteries in Washington, DC, where a few of my ancestors are buried, I noticed there are two Categories for this location:

Washington, District of Columbia and District of Columbia

District of Columbia is strangely the higher level category and it ended in 1871 but has categories nestled under it for modern times including...

Washington, District of Columbia which is the correct current legal name.  

Why is Washington, District of Columbia nestled under District of Columbia?  That is incorrect.  We don't nestle West Virginia under Virginia or Alabama under the Alabama Territory, etc.

As a previous resident, our legal address was Washington, District of Columbia. 

Answer 1

The two happen to cover the same space, but technically they are different entities and Washington is a city within the District of Columbia just like Baltimore is a city within the state of Maryland.  It seems the higher category should be District of Columbia, and under that would be just "Washington."   Personally, since they are the same place I don't see why we need two categories.

Comments

Kathie very correct. I was stationed in Washington DC at Walter Reed Medical and that is exactly what I had to learn to understand the nature of the area. In the beginning it is very confusing to new comers. I was corrected many times before I had it straight in my mind.

---

The City of Washington can not just be Washington because of the State of Washington. Therefore the city needs the District of Columbia added to help differentiate the location from the state.

---

Yes and appreciated.

Answer 2

If you treat the District of Columbia as a state equivalent then it would make sense why it is the parent category of Washington, District of Columbia.

All the state equivalent categories like Cemeteries, Notables etc are also added under the District of Columbia level.

Answer 3

Since Alexandria was part of the original District of Columbia, shouldn’t we have a category under the District for Alexandria in that time period. I don’t see it but perhaps I am looking in the wrong place in the structure? I have used Alexandria, DC as a place name in the period on profiles.

Comments

I think this is the key point. (Also, the territory (roughly) of present-day Arlington County was within Alexandria County, District of Columbia.) It seems that profiles should be using this through 13 March 1847, being the date the Virginia legislature voted to accept the retrocession of the territory. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arlington_County,_Virginia