What is in a Name?

      The overall design of the Cobblestone Info Base was based on the Robert l. Roudabush Survey 1976-1980 so that an orderly import of that documentation and imagery could be easily done. Robert had created a "Key" of the first three letters of the Township or County (if there were no towns/townships) followed by the number sequence in the Township/County menu in order to uniquely identify each cobblestone structure; for example Men-3. Appended to this was the name(s) of owner(s) such as "Gates" or "Gates-Livermore" known at the time of the Survey. Often just the last name or descriptive name was provided. It is thought that a two name choice (X-Y) was the oldest known name (perhaps original) and the current owner when the documentation was created.

      In practice there were a few duplications of the 3 letter part of the key where two different Townships/Counties had the same first three letters and likely the sequence number as well. The addition of the name(s) made it unlikely there would be any duplication; therefore, the "Key and the name(s)" became the unique identifier for each structure included in the Cobblestone Info Base.

      The address is provided typically without city and zip code and is the property address specified in Tax Assessor records, which may not be the same as the USPS address. The post office location is often located outside of the Township, be distant within a county, or be in an adjacent county and would be misleading as to exact location. By including GPS coordinates, the Cobblestone Info Base exactly defines the location of each cobblestone structure. It is not part of the "Key" but aids in identifying and locating the structure for the user.

      The use of the name(s) does have an issue. Nearly all authentic cobblestone structures were built between 1825 and 1868. Over the years a cobblestone structure has had many different owners or tenants. Rarely does a structure stay within the family for more than several decades and may have paternal or maternal name changes as well. At time of this writing, an 1825 structure is now 200 years old. The passage of time for whatever reason has made the determination and sequential listing from the original owner to today very impractical, often involving time and expense to search records. Several names could be associated with the original construction; Property owner (financier and/or first occupant), architect (rare), and builders - carpenter(s) and mason(s); basically, whose name is on the first deed. Subsequent deeds would name those owners.

      In reality, serious documentation and imagery through the years of authentic cobblestone structures was done by a few key historians and organizations such as local and state historical societies and museums, Library of Congress, Dorothy Wells Pease, Carl F. Schmidt, Gerda Peterich, Robert L. Roudabush, Martin and Sheila Wolfish, and Richard Palmer, and contributions by numerous other individuals, organizations and sources. The majority of names used in the "Key" originated in the published material by Carl F. Schmidt and Robert L. Roudabush. How those names were chosen is not important, because the whole "Key" is considered permanent as used throughout the html programmed structure of the Cobblestone Info Base and is very important in how the user navigates the Cobblestone Info Base.

      If, for whatever reason, another name is important, that can be detailed within the structure web page for that cobblestone structure. An option is to include a "Structure name; AKA (also known as):" item in the "Documentation" section of the structure web page. Included may be:

Original Owner
Any subsequent owner
Combination of any two subsequent owners (X - Y)
Use description - schoolhouse, business or commercial building, factory, church, monument, barn, garage, wall, smokehouse, etc.

      The choice of names may be based on a name on a cornerstone or stone elsewhere on the structure, a plaque installed by whatever source, an owner being historically important, locally a commonly referred to name, the name on a Historical Marker or used for the State or National Register of Historic Places, assigned by an Historical Society or Museum, variation of name spelling, simply "Unknown" which may be changed to the current owner at the time of edit, etc.

      When a request is received to change the "Key" name used in the Cobblestone Info Base, the "Structure name; AKA:" is added to the "Documents" section, with the requested name change in italics with a footnote providing a requester attribute, along with all other known names stated in documentation and imagery available within and linked from that structure's web page. Added documentation may be provided to clarify the request. Changing the key name can involve extensive and time consuming html programming edits throughout the Cobblestone Info Base and is prone to errors; therefore, is typically not done.

      A guideline typically followed in the Cobblestone Info Base is that documentation provided from whatever source and that which is selected for import into the Cobblestone Info Base is not edited, other than obvious spelling errors and sometimes missing punctuation which would create confusion. When a conflict or contradiction with information provided is found, an "Editor's Note:" is created to provide details of all sides of the conflict or contradiction. If true information is known, in addition that is provided, otherwise the issue is left open in order to give the user all information known to-date. Perhaps that user might know the correct information and hopefully contacts the Cobblestone Museum.