What's the proper way to document a pre-Rev War place; obviously not "USA"

Question

It has been suggested to use "Province of <state name>". Should it be followed by "British Colonial America"? Use up until July 4, 1776 or September 3, 1783?

Comments

It has also been suggested to use just the name of the state, like Maryland.  Also, I would think July 4, 1776 is the birth of the USA even if it took a few years to make the British understand that.

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The English didn't become The British until 1707. So the American Colonies started out as English Colonies, right?

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I use "British Colonial America" until the official date the colony became a state; i.e. Maryland became 7th state in 1778, April 28.  After that date I label the place Maryland USA.

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Hello AnneMarie!

Thank you so very much for responding to my question. I had no idea that it would draw out such a variety of answers, some of them seem to be pretty passionate; it even sounds like a few of them would like to get anyone that uses "British Colonial America" into a boxing ring! What invoked my question was my own "habit" of adding USA to all of the event locations that I entered in the profiles that I create/manage. One day, I realized my error and also observed that I was not alone in making that mistake. Since then, I have "vowed" to try and go back to correct those errors, but wasn't sure if there was already a WikiTree standard for time based location entries... Apparently not! John Vickery provided a link to a Wikipedia date of admission file that looks promising. Anyway, thank you again for taking your time to respond to my question. You make our "tree" stronger and better!

Regards,

Vern Howe

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It was an interesting comment.  I have not seen any written direction on how we should address the territories after the revolution and looking at your link, none of the states were admitted to the USA until Dec 1787.  So how do we address these states between 1776 and 1778?  They are no longer a British colony nor are they a State; so I have been addressing them as the "Colonies" rather than the "British colonies".  I cannot help but think these details are vital.  Anyway, thank you for the link.

Answer 1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_date_of_admission_to_the_Union 

JPVIV :)

Answer 2

While the suggestion has been made to use British Colonial America with the prefix of "Province of <state name>", this seems cumbersome and does not accurately fit the name of the location as it was known at the time.

My personal preference of to use the "<state name> Colony" as this is more in keeping with the period references. After 1776, the use of the State's name seems appropriate.

Comments

Unfortunately, that format also reinvents history, since the colonies didn't all have names in a form like "Pennsylvania Colony."

It seems to me that the best solution is to use the state name (e.g. Pennsylvania) unless you have documentation of another name (e.g., Massachusetts Bay Colony) or there's reason to think that the state name could be ambiguous (e.g., "Georgia" could be in America or Europe, so I'd add something like "North America" for clarification).

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Sorry, but I was referencing the few Colonies I have experience with.

Answer 3

Was the phrase "British Colonial America" used during that period? (obviously ignoring French, Spanish, and Native possessions)

It would seem that, following the rule to "Use their conventions not ours", the correct form for the period preceding the Revolution would in general be Town/County/Colony. There are no larger political entities.

For clarity's sake (and in the absence of contemporaneous documents), I suggest adding the geographically correct "New World" between 1492 and approximately 1560, and "America" for the period of 1560 (around the time that the term became common) to the Revolution.

For American Patriots, the English colonies become "The United States of America" in 1776. For Loyalists they remain English until the Treaty of Paris in 1783.

Answer 4

British North America and British Colonial America drive me crazy. No one pre-1776 had ever heard of such a place. The King sometimes calls it Continent of America (on documents), but then people here (wikitree) didn't want it to be confused with South America. Just call it <State><Colony>. For the New England States, New England can be used. That is a term frequently seen in wills and other documents.

Comments

If I may add my two cents in on this. A retired History teacher told me that the official; name from England all depended on the colony. Everyone grew up saying each future State was colony  *******  But Colony of Pennsylvania or Pennsylvania Colony (along with another one or two) were a Provence. It was the Provence of Pennsylvania. But everyone in this country had always called it Colony of Pennsylvania or Pennsylvania Colony. It has always been accepted.