Mecklenburg North Carolina or Mecklinburg North Carolina [closed]

Question

This was an edit to (https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Wilson-8918 : accessed 18 April 2024). : Kathy (Stuewe) Zipperer edited the Birth Place for Zaccheus Wilson (1761-1842). (Corrected birth place name based on US Southern Colonies Project.) [Thank Kathy for this]

The birthplace was changed from Mecklenburg to Mecklinburg. Why? The Mecklenburg Declaration is spelled Mecklenburg. I think its a safe guess that it was a German named county because that is how Mecklenburg-Schwerin in Germany is spelled. I have ancestors from there.

Here we go:

Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mecklenburg_County,_North_Carolina. "It was named in commemoration of the marriage of King George III to Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz for whom the county seat Charlotte is named."

Mecklenburg County North Carolina https://www.google.com/search?gs_ssp=eJzj4tLP1TcwMi0qLjE0YPSSyk1Nzs5JzUsqLUpXyMsvKslQSE4sys_JzEsEAAXcDdk&q=mecklenburg+north+carolina&rlz=1C1RXMK_enUS1077US1081&oq=Mecklenburg+north&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqBwgBEC4YgAQyCggAEAAY4wIYgAQyBwgBEC4YgAQyBggCEEUYOTIHCAMQABiABDIHCAQQABiABDIHCAUQABiABDIHCAYQABiABDIGCAcQRRhB0gEJMjIzNTdqMGo3qAIAsAIA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

It is still spelled the same way it was at it's inception. Is this creating a database error???

Comments

Based on T's observation that Mecklenburg County, North Carolina did not exist at the time of his birth (1761, according to his profile), I would suggest that both "Mecklenburg" and "Mecklinburg" be removed from the birth place datafield.

See History of County Formations in North Carolina 1664-1965.

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I just made a correction to Zaccheus Wilson regarding place of birth. I removed Mecklenburg County as place of birth and replaced it with Anson County. I also placed in the “Research Notes” a note stating that Mecklenburg County was formed from Anson County. At the time of Wilson’s birth it would have been Anson.

As a native-born North Carolinian I can attest that the spelling always has been “Mecklenburg” with an “e”.

There’s a bigger problem. Zaccheus Wilson is listed as being 4 years old when he married 23 year old Elizabeth Conager. There’s a profile for Zaccheus Wilson Jr, “brother” of Zaccheus, born 1733 Pennsylvania, also listed as married to Elizabeth. Both “brothers” are listed as dying in Sumner County Tennessee but several years apart.

Answer 1

I answered a similar comment Eileen posted to the space page for the US Southern Colonies Project Editing Guidance.

The only change made by Kathy was to add "Province of" before North Carolina in the birth place datafield, following guidance on that page. Specifically, in the "Location Names" section:

The Project adheres to the WikiTree guiding principle for Name Fields and Location Fields: "use their convention instead of ours."

In general, locations will look like this specific example:

St. Anne's Parish, Albemarle County, Colony of Virginia

See US Southern Colonies Project Location Preferences for a detailed discussion of the Project's guidelines for location names, in particular:

• the names of the Colonies (e.g. Colony of Virginia, Province of Maryland)
• the use of the words Parish, County, District, etc. in location data fields
• Location Resources for researching the history of location names

See Help: Location Fields for more information.

The original import, in 2012, was "Mecklinburg, Mecklenburg, North Carolina, United States". The datafield for Wilson-8918 had displayed "Mecklinburg, Mecklenburg, North Carolina" since 2017, when Vic Watt removed "United States" to clear a "USA too early" database error (see this Changes detail).

Since then, projects were asked to provide Aleš with "preferred locations" for use in weekly database scrubs, which the US Southern Colonies did. As stated on the Editing Guidance page and quoted above, that is to use "Province of" or "Colony of" as appropriate for pre-USA locations (of the colonies covered by the US Southern Colonies Project, only Virginia uses "Colony of"). So Kathy added "Province of" before "North Carolina" as called for by the US Southern Colonies Project.

The "Mecklinburg, Mecklenburg" part remained untouched by Kathy, and it is not addressed in the profile's text. My inclination would have been to also add "County" following "Mecklenburg", but the inclusion of "Mecklinburg" threw me.

If you have knowledge of this person, and know that "Mecklinburg" does not belong in the location datafield, please just remove it.

Answer 2

I don't believe the spelling should have been changed and I suggest that you change it back. The member who made the change makes a lot of rapid fire changes to many profiles and does not give an adequate source for this change. The spelling to which it was changed is not a drop down suggestion (though those are from an external source which is known to contain errors).

The county was not formed until 1762. I don't see record of a town named Mecklenburg, just the county. Is there historical evidence of a town of this name in North Carolina? I only lived in the state for four years, long ago, but don't recall references to a town of this name (even if defunct).

Edit: Yes, I would check if the spelling is somehow creating a DBE which Data Doctors on the high speed challenge fly change without checking.

Comments

T - Kathy did not make any change other than to add "Province of" to the birth place datafield. Since Eileen found the project's Editing Guidance page that Kathy referenced, and which explains that the project's editing guidelines would call for "Province of North Carolina", I believe that Kathy's change was adequately explained.

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Thanks for the star, Traci.

Answer 3

Might I recommend that a quick look at the changes tab shows that Kathy Z did not change the name or spelling of the location From Meckinburg to Mecklenburg.  

Based on the original post and mentioning Wikipedia, Mecklenburg was formed on December 11, 1762 and should not even be in the birth location.

As Liz mentioned, Kathy did add the correct "Province of North Carolina" which is following the US Southern Colonies Project guidelines.  If this is not wanted, I recommend contacting that Project's leadership for a discussion.

I think Kathy Z was unfairly questioned here on this one.  I only know her to be a great WTer and in fact was a Captain on the recent Newt Thon Team.