Talk:Jānis Ilsters

There was no Latvia

There was no Latvia at this time. We should not retroactvrly and ahistorically plave people in countries that did not exist when a person lived.John Pack Lambert (talk) 04:12, 6 November 2023 (UTC)

People who lived in the Russian Empire were nationals of the Russian Empire. In the same way I can assume that someone living in Teaxas from 1925-1942 was an American, even if the article only mentions more local places they lived in.John Pack Lambert (talk) 05:07, 6 November 2023 (UTC)

Other categories

It also seems that he would be properly placed in Category:People from the Governorate of Livonia based on where he lived at least his early life. It is not 100% clear to me if he always lived in Livonia or if he later lived in the Governorate of Courland as well.John Pack Lambert (talk) 05:30, 6 November 2023 (UTC)

Actually sources

I read through the first source. It mainly describes the very specific locations he lived. We can verify these were all in the Russian Empire. Mainly he was connected with the Governorate of Livonia. The source occasionally refers to his work as having been in the Baltics. This whole area was verifiable in the Russian Empire during his lifetime. We can verify his connection to the Russian Empire with the sources.John Pack Lambert (talk) 06:02, 6 November 2023 (UTC)

We should say Governorate of Livonia in listing if birth place

In our listing of his birth place we should say Governorate of Livonia. The current acceptable standard is to use the name of a place, as standardized in current reliable sources, that applied to the place when an event occurred. When he was born the name of the place he was born was the Govwrnorate of Livonia. This was in the Russian Empire. I do not know for sure if we need to put Russian Empire there as well.John Pack Lambert (talk) 06:06, 6 November 2023 (UTC)

Death place

The dwath place would also best mention the Russian Empire as well.John Pack Lambert (talk) 06:08, 6 November 2023 (UTC)

Russian Empire

@Smasongarrison: I was notified about this discussion by User:Johnpacklambert on my talk page. The analogy that he offers is entirely sound: you can put the biography of someone from Tennessee in American occupation categories even if sources don't explicitly mention that the person was a US national. That isn't any different for the Russian Empire or any other country. Marcocapelle (talk) 07:01, 6 November 2023 (UTC)

Thanks for the outside opinion and confirming the analogy, I appreciate it. I'll restore the edit and @Johnpacklambert, my apologies for being overzealous. Mason (talk) 13:45, 6 November 2023 (UTC)