Mappy Monday - Where is that place?

Have you ever wondered where a place is located? Crotty, LaSalle County, Illinois is the original name for Seneca, LaSalle County, Illinois.  My Couch family settled in Crotty in 1856. Elisha T. was a blacksmith. Was he the first? The only blacksmith?
After watching "Using Maps" by Cathi Weber and Jean Stauffer, I learned about GNIS. The Geographic Names Information System. The following is from the cite.

The U.S. Board on Geographic Names is a Federal body created in 1890 and established in its present form by Public Law in 1947 to maintain uniform geographic name usage throughout the Federal Government... The original program of names standardization addressed the complex issues of domestic geographic feature names 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 who required uniform, non-conflicting geographic nomenclature. President Benjamin Harrison signed an Executive Order establishing the Board and giving it authority to resolve unsettled geographic names questions... 

The Board gradually expanded its interests to include foreign names and other areas of interest to the United States, a process that accelerated during World War II. In 1947, the Board was recreated by Congress in Public_Law_80-242 . The usefulness of standardizing (not regulating) geographic names has been proven time and again, and today more than 50 nations have some type of national names authority. The United Nations stated that "the best method to achieve international standardization is through strong programs of national standardization." Numerous nations established policies relevant to toponomy (the study of names) in their respective countries.

In this age of geographic information systems, the Internet, and homeland defense, geographic names data are even more important and more challenging. Applying the latest technology, the Board on Geographic Names continues its mission. It serves the Federal Government and the public as a central authority to which name problems, name inquiries, name changes, and new name proposals can be directed. In partnership with Federal, State, and local agencies, the Board provides a conduit through which uniform geographic name usage is applied and current names data are promulgated....

The search for Crotty revealed Crotty Creek and Seneca. My interest is in Seneca. For Seneca:

• name
• classification
• federal code
• variant names
• coordinates
• citation

What more could one want? Look up any name current or historical.

"Using Maps" by Cathi Weber is from NorthStar Genealogy. 

Comments or questions, Selma Blackmon

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