# Place history (v1.1, 2026-10-14)

`place_history_v1.1.csv` — one row per current city, town, plantation and reservation, plus the places that deorganized since 2017 (Oxbow North, Cary, Codyville, Atkinson, Magalloway, Drew) and Baring Plt (491 in all, keyed by `unit_id`), plus the 16 counties (`COUNTY-<Name>`). Feeds the header of every place page (P-121): "Incorporated YYYY" and a one- or two-sentence note on the name. The page builder uses the newest `place_history_*.csv` in this folder. v0.1 and v1.0 are kept for history.

Columns: `unit_id, name, incorporated_date` (YYYY-MM-DD or YYYY; plantations = year organized — see `date_basis`), `incorporated_as` (only if incorporated under another name), `city_date` (cities only), `name_origin` (original short wording; blank when no reliable source explains the name), `sources`, `confidence` (high = two agreeing sources or an explicit authoritative one; medium = one source; low = sources conflict), `notes` (conflicts and oddities).

Rules (Matt, 2026-10-05): show incorporation for everything where known, leave it off where not; keep the name note short. Pages never show anything marked as a guess.

How conflicts were settled (Claude, 2026-10-05, at Matt's request not to wait on him): pages show only the **year**, so sources disagreeing on the day or month do not matter there (where they disagree, the date column keeps only the year). Where sources disagree on the year, the better-documented year is used and the other is in `notes` (e.g. Kittery 1652 Massachusetts act, not the traditional 1647; York County 1652; North Yarmouth 1680). Where sources disagree on a name story, the note is written to say only what they agree on, or is left blank (Charlotte). Plantations that later became towns show the town date (Stacyville 1953, Caswell 1986, Wallagrass 1979).

Status: 499 of 504 rows have a date, 447 a name note; confidence {'medium': 214, 'high': 258, 'low': 32}. v1.0 adds the 16 Penobscot places, the 19 Piscataquis places, Penobscot and Piscataquis counties, and second sources for Thorndike, Troy, Unity (corrected to 1804-06-22), Waldo, Winterport and York County. Sources: mainly Wikipedia and *Maine: An Encyclopedia* (maineanencyclopedia.com), plus Maine Law Library session laws, MEGenWeb, MaineGenealogy.net, town and historical-society sites.

## What changed in v1.1 (2026-10-14, data audit II: GC-8, GC-9, GC-10, P-123b)

New columns (added at the end, so the page builder is unaffected):
* `date_basis` — what `incorporated_date` means on that row: `town incorporated` (towns and cities: the original incorporation), `plantation organized` (current plantations, and plantations that later deorganized), `county established`, or `reservation`; "(date not found)" where the date is blank. The audit found the column's meaning was unclear for plantations that had once been towns.
* `town_incorporated`, `town_status_surrendered` — for places that were incorporated towns and are now plantations or townships: Brighton Plt (town of North Hill 1816; plantation 1895), Kingsbury Plt (1836-03-22; 1886), Carroll Plt (1845-03-02; 1937), Glenwood Plt (1867-02-14; 1868), Baring Plt (1825-01-19; 1941), Drew (1921-04-05; 1930s, year not found), Atkinson (1819-02-12). These places keep their plantation date in `incorporated_date`, because plantation pages say "Organized YYYY"; a page can now add "incorporated as a town in YYYY".
* `deorganized` — the year (or July 1 date) a place joined the unorganized territory, from the State Auditor's list: Oxbow North 2017, Cary / Codyville / Atkinson 2019, Magalloway 2021, Drew 2023; Baring 1941 (it reorganized as a plantation in 1962).

Rows added: **Baring Plt** (MPD-0438; organized as a plantation 1962), **Drew Twp** (MPD-0297; plantation organized 1856), **Magalloway Twp** (MPD-0261; plantation organized 1883). Bancroft, Madrid, Centerville and the other townships are still not covered.

Notes updated: **Maxfield** — residents rejected the deorganization plan 11–23 on May 26, 2026, so it remains a town and cannot petition again until 2029. **Westmanland** and **Frenchboro** — the laws that converted them to towns (P&SL 1977 c. 5; P&SL 1979 c. 3) both needed a local vote whose result was not found in a published source, so their dates stay blank (the Secretary of State's returns drop "Plt" after 1976 and 1978 respectively, which fits 1977 and 1979 but is not proof). The three tribal units remain without a date.

**Watch for:** Baring Plt is typed `unorganized township` in `registration-data/units.csv` (audit II GC-7). The page builder labels a place "Organized" only when its unit type is `plantation`, so until that type is corrected Baring's header would read "Incorporated 1962". 

Status: 502 of 507 rows have a date. Script: `places/fix_place_history_v1.1.py`.