PLACE SEARCH Enter a community name: Country: <All> Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware District of Columbia Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming Advanced search

PLACE TYPE DEFINITIONS Researchers of British history and family genealogy will often encounter unknown words referring to various historic place types. Here are a few: Bal-, Ball-, Bally- - Gaelic, similar to the English -ton. It can refer to a farm, village, estate or settlement. Borough - Administrative counties and boroughs were established in the UK in 1888. Also see royal borough. Burgh - In Scotland, this was a town, usually incorporated, existing before the reorganization of local government in 1975. A royal burgh was one where the charter and trading privileges had been granted by the Crown. Country - Britain makes even this seemingly simple concept complex. Here's the government's own definition, under the headline Countries within a country: The United Kingdom is made up of four countries: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Its full name is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Great Britain, however, comprises only England, Scotland and Wales. Great Britain is the largest island of the British Isles. Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic form the second largest island. The Isle of Man and the Channel Islands are not part of the United Kingdom. They are largely self-governing with their own legislative assemblies and systems of law. But the British government is responsible for their defence and international relations. County and historic county - See our historic counties page. County palatine - In medieval England, this was a county whose lord held special powers. Chester, Durham, Kent and Shropshire were counties palatine. Croft - This measure of tenant farmland was widespread the islands and Highlands of Scotland. Hide - A parcel large enough to support a family for a year. Hundred - In England, a hundred was an administrative subdivision of a shire. Hundreds were further split into divisions, and into tithings of 10 households. These units, established by Germanic people settling here, were abolished in 1867. Lathe - A administrative subdivision in the county of Kent, from medieval times to the 20th century. Liberty - A unit of local government beginning in the Middle Ages. Most were phased out by the late 19th century. Northern Ireland - This country of the UK, separate from the Republic of Ireland, includes the following six counties: Antrim    Down Armagh    Fermanagh Derry (Londonderry)    Tyrone Parish - Parishes listed on ePodunk UK are ecclesiastical parishes, which existed for three centuries before the creation of civil parishes in 1832. We associate them with historic counties. For more info, see our parishes page. Rape - An administrative unit of an English county. Royal borough - Three English boroughs - Kensington & Chelsea (formerly Kensington), Kingston upon Thames, and Windsor were given this designation. It signified that the borough answered directly to the sovereign. Shire - Widely used reference to the historic counties of the UK. County names may or may not include the shire suffix. Tithing (also tything) - An English administrative unit, consisting of 10 households. Wapentake - While most of England was divided into hundreds, the historic counties of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Rutland and Yorkshire were divided into administrative units called wapentakes.