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The same thing is true in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.  In New York and New England, townships are called "towns."  In Delaware they are "hundreds."  Townships or towns are administrative subdivisions of counties and units of local government, and in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, "township" is part of the name, except when it is understood in a colloquial sense, such as in a list of other townships.  Of course, on a map, there is often merely a boundary line with the single name written within it.  I live in Lower Merion Township, which includes within it a number of villages or neighborhoods that are merely inhabited places without any form of government, such as Ardmore, Bryn Mawr, etc.  It is governed by the "Board of Commissioners of the Township of Lower Merion" or of "Lower Merion Township."  Because they are subdivisions of counties, it is possible and indeed common to have townships of the same name, e.g. Washington, Springfield, in two or more counties.  Sometimes, townships are raised entire to borough or city rank, and sometimes they have other jurisdictions such as boroughs and cities cut out of the center of them, doughnut-hole fashion, such as Washington Borough in the middle of Washington Township, Warren County, N.J., or Narberth in Lower Merion Township.  All of these represent both physical places and local governments with explicit boundaries.

Christopher T. Baer
Assistant Curator
Manuscripts & Archives
Hagley Musuem and Library
Greenville, Del. 19807
(a boundary-less inhabited place and post office in Christiana Hundred, New Castle County, Del.)

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From: Program for Cooperative Cataloging [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Watters, Tim (MDE) [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Friday, October 12, 2012 1:09 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [PCCLIST] populated place versus civil class designation in GNIS


Vicki



Here�s some back and forth with LC about this that I had a few years ago.



Regards

Tim Watters
Special Materials Cataloger
Library of Michigan
702 West Kalamazoo St
P.O. Box 30007
Lansing, MI 48909-7507
Tel: 517-373-3071
e-mail: [log in to unmask]




-----Original Message-----



From: Watters, Tim (MDE) [mailto:[log in to unmask]]<mailto:[mailto:[log in to unmask]]>

Sent: Wednesday, July 06, 2011 4:44 PM

To: LChelp4rda

Subject: LCPS 16.4 (townships)



Dear Library of Congress Policy and Standards Division



Library of Congress Policy Statement 16.4 provides in part: "For U.S. townships (called 'towns' in some states) that encompass one or more local communities and the surrounding territory, do not include the term 'township' or 'town' as part of the name.  Instead, add the term after the name of the state."



Here in Michigan, townships do not "encompass one or more local communities and the surrounding territory." In Michigan, townships are local jurisdictions on par with cities and villages.



My suggestion is that in copying LCRI 23.2, Modifications of a Name (5) to LCPS 16.4 it should be edited to emphasize that it does not apply in states where townships are local communities that do not "encompass one or more local communities and the surrounding territory."



We don't set up Atlantic City as 151__Atlantic (N.J. : City) so there is no reason to set up Saint Joseph Township as 151__ Saint Joseph (Mich. : Township).



In Michigan, the word "township" is integral to the name of the jurisdiction. Another example is Delta County in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and Delta Township in the Lower Peninsula. In order to distinguish the names (and also how those jurisdictions identify themselves) we need the full name for the township which happens to include the word "Township."



By the way, I'll be visiting LC in two weeks for the NACO Advanced Corporate Names workshop. I will ask about LCRI 24.4C, "form of qualifier" where the full name of the township is not permitted to be in corporate name qualifiers. The is confusing because it does not distinguish between the city named "Saint Joseph" and "Saint Joseph Township" which are separate local communities. See:



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Joseph,_Michigan



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Joseph_Charter_Township,_Michigan



Mr. Hiatt tried to help me with this a few years ago (see below), but I actually live in a local jurisdiction named Delta Township, there is no city overlapping that area.



Thank you for your time!



Tim



Tim Watters

[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>

Special Materials Cataloger

Library of Michigan

702 W. Kalamazoo St.

P.O. Box 30007

Lansing, MI 48909-7507

517-373-3071



>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

From: Johnson, Bruce [mailto:[log in to unmask]]<mailto:[mailto:[log in to unmask]]>
Sent: Tuesday, July 12, 2011 9:11 AM
To: Watters, Tim (MDE)
Cc: Reser, Dave; LChelp4rda; Cristan, Ana Lupe
Subject: RE: LCPS 16.4 (townships)


Tim:



            Thank you very much for bringing this question to our attention. In considering this issue it seems like the current LCPS formulation for townships is something of an anachronism that maybe should be re-thought. That could be folded into a broader review of the LC Policy Statements, but you clearly are looking for some help now.



            Your presentation about townships is certainly supported by our research, which is to say, that Michigan charter townships are indeed 'local jurisdictions,' and as such should include the name 'township' in the NAR, not as a qualifier but as a part of the name.  Given your interest in this, as well as where you work, would you be willing to create or adjust NARs for the 39 Michigan charter townships? The reason why we would like you to do this is that since this is an apparent change in past practice we would like to ensure that all of the Michigan charter townships are handled the same way.



            We would like to ask that you please include the following 667 note in each NAR:



667  $a Chartered township treated as local place after consultation with Library of Michigan and LC's Policy & Standards Division



We hope that this will make it clear why these 39 townships are being established in a manner that is apparently different from LCPS 16.4.  Of course the current NAR for "Saint Joseph (Mich. : Township)"  (n 80084184 ) will need to be adjusted as well.



            Please let us know if you have any questions.



Bruce


Bruce Chr. Johnson
The Library of Congress
Policy & Standards Division
Washington, DC 20540-4263 USA



From: Program for Cooperative Cataloging [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Brueck, Vicki
Sent: Friday, October 12, 2012 12:25 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [PCCLIST] populated place versus civil class designation in GNIS

I would like to create the authority record for Alliance, N.C.  �.