- Union, Burnett County, Wisconsin, a town
- Union, Door County, Wisconsin, a town
- Union, Eau Claire County, Wisconsin, a town
- Union, Pierce County, Wisconsin, a town
- Union, Rock County, Wisconsin, a town
- Union, Vernon County, Wisconsin, a town
- Union, Waupaca County, Wisconsin, a town
It made me wish that the Board on Geographic Names (BGN) at
the U.S. Geographical Survey had been on the job when those towns were being founded.
The BGN, established in 1890, is responsible for determining the
official name and location of all places and geological features within the
U.S., Antarctica, and for undersea features.
The need for standardized place names arose, according to
the BGN Web site, "during the surge of exploration, mining, and settlement
of western territories after the American Civil War. Inconsistencies and
contradictions among many names, spellings, and applications became a serious
problem to surveyors, map makers, and scientists.... President Benjamin
Harrison signed an Executive Order establishing the Board and giving it
authority to resolve unsettled geographic names questions."
The BGN also serves as a resource for the general public.
Any person or organization may inquiry about place names or request the BGN to
render formal decisions on proposed new names, proposed name changes, or names
that are in conflict.
Because historical names are tracked, this makes the work of
the BGN of special interest to genealogists. The results of their work are kept
in a public searchable database called the Geographic
Names Information System (GNIS), which contains more than 2 million
names for geographic and cultural locations in the United States. One of my favorite research sites, Histopolis, uses GNIS data. And the GNIS
database might come in handy for direct searches as you work on your American ancestors.
(And my guy was from Rock County, btw.)
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