Correct Place Names in Colonial America

[Herb]

I'm not totally hung up on correct place names, but do have quite a bit of ancestry particularly in 1600's Massachusetts. For example, how should Eastham correctly be shown? I think it might be Eastham, Massachusetts Bay Colony, but I'm not sure. Same thing for Plymouth: is it just Plymouth Colony and nothing else? Thanks for your help

[eventide]

I'm not an expert on this area but I think it depends on what time period you are talking about - and it could change based on that. For example, I found this on Wikipedia: "Plymouth served as the capital of Plymouth Colony (which consisted of modern-day Barnstable, Bristol, and Plymouth counties) from its founding in 1620 until 1691, when the colony was merged with the Massachusetts Bay Colony and other territories to form the Province of Massachusetts Bay." So I think you are going to need to dig into the history of each of these areas to determine how each area was formed based on date.

Hope this helps.

[Tony Knight]

I'm not totally hung up on correct place names, but do have quite a bit of ancestry particularly in 1600's Massachusetts. For example, how should Eastham correctly be shown? I think it might be Eastham, Massachusetts Bay Colony, but I'm not sure. Same thing for Plymouth: is it just Plymouth Colony and nothing else? Thanks for your help

I have yet to follow through, but I think I saw a reference to Family Search having some suggestions.
As Brit what really bugs me is the I think it is Ancestry driven practice of having British place names which are actually administrative areas which only came into existence in 1974