> Our US contributors may be able to explain more
> accurately just what a "township" is in their usage today(?).
Since you asked, and since many US contributors don't have cause to
understand the full picture of the structure of the US locational entities,
below is a summary extracted from the National Institute of Standards and
Technology (NIST).
Briefly, we enjoy a four-level hierarchy of mutually exclusive and
exhaustive areas.
Contributors to this list have referred to the four levels as states,
counties, townships and places, but in fact the situation is more
complicated than that. For example, the District of Columbia is not a state
(for that matter, neither is Massachusetts), the state of Louisiana does not
have counties, a few states have both counties and independent cities which
are not in any county, and what's called a township in Ohio would be called
a town in Vermont and a magisterial district in Virginia, while in 22 states
there is no governmental level that corresponds to a township at all.
The boundaries defining these areas have changed over the nearly 400 years
that (some of them) have been in place, and will continue to change,
probably forever. Locating an event in terms of all four categories may
sometimes cause more more confusion than clarity. Unity, New Hampshire, for
example, was in Cheshire County until after the Revolutionary War, when part
of Cheshire County was set off and named Sullivan County. Today at the
Family History Libraries you will find the vital records for Unity filed
under Sullivan County, but anybody born there in the 18th century was born
in Cheshire County. Since the boundaries of New England towns are somewhat
more stable than the boundaries of counties, and since most early New
England vital records were kept by the town and not by the counties, many
genealogists who write about early New England ancestors will name the town
but not the county unless the county name is really relevant to the
discussion (e.g., in a discussion of probate records filed at the county
level). The more doctrinaire posters to this list will not approve of this
practice, but the style sheet for the New England Historical and
Genealogical Register clearly shows it.
Locational Entities of the United States
============================
References
Definitions:
http://www.itl.nist.gov/fipspubs/fip55-3.htm
Search for lists of entities:
http://www.nist.gov/itl/fipspubs/55new/nav-top-fr.htm
Level 1: States and state equivalents
=====================================
States
State Equivalents:The District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, the
Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, United
States Minor Outlying Islands, and the Virgin Islands of the United
States; three freely associated statesthe Federated States of
Micronesia, Republic of the Marshall Islandsand the Republic of Palau,
also are defined as State equivalents for this FIPS.
Level 2: Counties and county equivalents
========================================
County
County Equivalent
Parish (in Louisiana)
Burough or census area (in Alaska)
Independent city (in Maryland, Missouri, Nevada, or Virginia)
County Equivalent: A primary division of a State or a State equivalent;
other than a county; for example, a parish in Louisiana, a borough or
census area in Alaska, or an independent city in Maryland, Missouri,
Nevada, or Virginia.
Independent City: An incorporated place that is not legally part of a
county or county equivalent and, therefore, also serves as a county
equivalent; applies only to Maryland, Missouri, Nevada, and Virginia
Level 3: Primary County Divisions
=================================
Primary County Division:The principal territorial unit into which a
county or county equivalent (except an independent city) is completely
subdivided, without overlap; see census county division, census
subarea, census subdistrict, incorporated place, minor civil division,
and unorganized territory.
Census County Division (CCD):A statistical entity that serves as a
primary county division in 21 States that do not have minor civil
divisions (MCDs) or whose MCDs are not used for data presentation by
the Census Bureau.
Minor Civil Division (MCD):A legal entity that is a subdivision of a
county or county equivalent, other than an incorporated place,
established by appropriate State or local governmental authorities and
recognized by the Census Bureau as a primary county division; for
example, a township in Ohio, a town in Vermont, a magisterial district
in Virginia. The Census Bureau recognizes MCDs in 28 States, Puerto
Rico, and in all the Outlying Areas and freely associated areas.
Census Subarea:A statistical entity that serves as a primary county
division in Alaska.
Census Subdistrict:A legally defined entity, established for
statistical purposes, that serves as a primary county division in the
Virgin Islands of the United States.
Incorporated Place:A populated place that is a legal entity having
legally defined boundaries and legally constituted governmental
functions and powers; also serves as a primary county division in some
States.
Level 4: Places, etc.
=====================
Populated Place:A named geographic concentration of residential
population; a populated place that is a legal entity is an
incorporated place or consolidated city; a populated place that is a
statistical entity is a census designated place (aldea or zona urbana
in Puerto Rico); a populated place that is neither is a community
Census Designated Place (CDP):A statistical entity that represents a
named populated settlement, not within the limits of an incorporated
place, that has locally delineated boundaries and is recognized by the
Census Bureau in the data tabulations for the most recent decennial
census; in Puerto Rico the equivalent of a CDP is called a comunidad
or zona urbana.
Alaska Native Area or American Indian Area
