One person drowned in a river near their home. I know where she lives, I even see her place and the river on Google Maps.
But how to indicate a coordinate for this place of death and for the river in general? The river is much bigger than just the place where the person lived and died. If I give the place of death as the GPS coordinates of the river, it is representative of the place of death but not at all of the extent of this river.
Many rivers have finer designations for boating navigation. (Reference navigation charts & waterway guides rather than land-oriented maps.) I’d put the river under the larger region (without GPS references) and then add the navigation point for where she drowned hierarchically under the River.
That how I logged my tree’s water feature deaths so far.
I have many similar scenarios. I have several instances where I have the river plotted in one community and again in another with the river again plotted in the state. Each with their own GPS coordinates.
Often there will be a note attached to these events so the place record has more context.
In writing this post, I also thought this may be perfect for the 5.2 place enhancement where events can be attached to a place record.The localized events along the river could be attached to the overall generic River place record. Something to have some more think about.
That is a rather unusual situation. In a water feature that is so minor as to ‘walk-able’ rather the ‘wade-able’, I’d tend to use a dry land landmark.
(As an example, I had an event where 4 men died ‘of the damp’ – they suffocated in the low-lying swamp gasses while digging a well. I just used the homestead as the location.)
Still, topographic maps often have IDs for landmark purposes.
