Genealogy question regarding names of towns and counties?

I have a lot of relatives I have traced back to the 1600's. Lot of towns and even counties have changed names etc.



I have been told we need to research and put down the name of the town when the event happened and also investigate what the name of the county when the event happened.



How can we find out specially the name of the county when the event happened.



For example I have people born in New Amsterdam. Which is now New York city.I also have people lived in prussia which is no longer around.Genealogy question regarding names of towns and counties?
Check parish records.Genealogy question regarding names of towns and counties?
So, what are you asking? Are you asking how you can find out the original name of a place and where it was located at the time and what it is called now and the country where it is now?

I think you will get the best one-on-one help with this if you go to your local public library or campus library (if you are a college/university student) and ask a reference librarian to help you find past and present location names.

Added: A librarian can help you start to learn the processes and procedures involved of learning how to conduct historical geographical research.

Or, you can list a past place name or two here in Y!A Genealogy, or in the Y!A Geography category or the Y!A History category (choose one after writing your question and before clicking Submit) and ask what the present-day place name and geo-political location are.

Using your example:
New Amsterdam, colony of the Netherlands -- now: New York City, New York County (Manhattan), New York, United States

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Best wishesGenealogy question regarding names of towns and counties?
New Amsterdam is pretty acceptable just as New Amsterdam. Prussia is a little harder. First you had East Prussia, winding from just east of Warsaw into Belarus, Lithuania, and even parts of the Ukraine. Then you had West Prussia, which goes from Warsaw to Berlin. The first place to check for the new names of old Central European places (and Poland is part of Central Europe, even though Americans got in the habit of calling them Eastern Europe during the Cold War) is to go the the Jewish GenWeb Shtetl Seeker databases. They did a good job of tracking all community changes, not just those with a significant Jewish population. Here's the link.



http://www.jewishgen.org/Communities/



If you have a place that is missing on Shtetl Seeker, drop me a note and I'll be happy to go to the 1883 Gazetteer of West Prussia for you.
With respect if you have done what you claim and 'researched' LOTS of ancestors back to 1600, then you have looked at RECORDS and DOCUMENTS which show what places were called and where they were............. if on the other hand you have been online and copied and pasted whatever you have found that is NOT researching and you have NO proof and none of your ancestry is verified........... in which case you need to start again to ensure you do get YOUR ancestors................



Example you have ancestors in Prussia so when you looked at the baptism records what church was it from, where was the church located in Prussia...that village/town has not moved, it may have changed its name and the country it is in may have....but very likely the church is still there along with the records..... see you can't research 'back to 1600' without knowing the village/town