The first image shows the FORM view of the State form with the Subform for the County. The second show the DESIGN views for the state form and the contnuous subform. How do I now add the Township under the County and the Municipality under the Township? Thanks!

For this case, I would just use synchronized subforms and have the next subform be synchronized under that one. Or, don't use subforms and just use combo boxes that you can add items to with a list items edit form or an on not in list event. There's lots of different ways you could do this.

Thank you! I will let you know how I resolve this! Your last suggestion sounds very simple! Thank you!

My last suggestion, the on not in list event, is actually the hardest one, LOL. Multiple combo boxes with a list items edit form would probably be the easiest way to do it, but not the best. Synchronized subforms would probably look the coolest, but that would involve probably the most work.

Oh, I forgot one more option. You could use nested subforms. That might actually be the easiest method.

I'm curious, what state has a township above a municipality?
I'm used to neighborhoods, districts, or communities being below a municipality, or a county if they are in an unincorporated area of a country.
Would you provide an example please?

Growing up I lived in the state of New York, county of Erie, Town of Hamburg. I didn't live in it, but there was also a Village of Hamburg inside the town.

Was the Town of Hamburg a township or a municipality/city?
What was the Village of Hamburg's hierarchical description?
I got info from ChatGPT that there are places with township between county and municipality that are legal/government entities.
I've never lived in one of those places.
Great, now I've got two days' work fixing the Geo hierarchy to 18 levels in the ADS. Aggghhhh!

ChatGPT to the rescue again, it it's correct NY uses "Town" instead of "Township" for something between a city and a country.
Double Aggghhh!

I'm curious what David's going to do when he enters in states like California that don't have a "Township".

Oh boy, in researching this deeper, I had to add two new levels for the known universe to handle US states and all countries.
Schema below:

You forgot quadrant and sector.

Ha ha. That's Star Trek, not the real world of astronomy.
But somehow I knew that comment was coming.

Just a quick comment for those that are designing their own geographic tables. People often confuse postal or zip codes with other methods of defining geographies. There are many like census, political boundaries, and various confusing government ones that step all over each other from climate to demographics. Add to this the variety of private methods for polls, popularity and usage tracking. It can be a nightmare. ISO standards help, but only to a certain level.

Did you notice I left a hole with ID 401? Yep, I'm ready for when someone goes beyond the known universe into other dimensions. You know, all the stuff that Trekkies love, but for real.

I think I'll be long gone before that happens, but I'm thinking of you carrying on with the ADS.

ADS = Advanced Development shell (for Access)
I'm so glad that when I came up with this 45 years ago that I didn't include a word that begins with the letter "I".
It would have never got off the ground as no one would have ever touched it.

I just spent two days going around and around with ChatGPT on townships and the hierarchy of earth to the Cosmic Web. It kept changing its answers and correcting inconsistencies. So if you see an error in my prior posts, yes I know. I hope I've got the database correct now on these. Good grief.

@David if you're going to use your 4 tables in something other than just the definitions, like a customer table, you're going to have to figure out a way to skip levels if you want a hierarchy, because it seems cities often bypass township to the county level, and states like California don't have townships. In the image below, you can see that I've skipped around levels (column 2) 420, 417, 416, 406, 403 because they don't apply to my neighborhood on up.

Hi Thomas - WOW. I just saw all these responses. I moved here from CA so was very confused when I would pass a sign that said entering "Town of Ithaca" and then drive further in ward and see a sign that said entering "City of Ithaca." Best way to explain it is this: Townships in New York are 1 form of organization below a county. Each County has several townships. Within a Township are multiple "localities." I should have used "localities" instead of municipalities. A locality can be incorporated or unincorporated. Unincorporated would be a HAMLET, CROSS ROADS, etc. and they have no mayor. Incorporated would be a city or village and they do have mayors. The difference between a City and a Village is Cities have their own charters, Villages do not (doesn't have anything to do with population size).  Every township has a SUPERVISOR. I hope this helps clarify it.

Richard - I have not resolved this yet, the database had some other issues I tried to resolve first. I am getting back to this shortly.
Thomas - I really like your table. And right now, I am not worried about other states. I'm only working in New York right now and I'm still learning about designing databases. I will cross that bridge when I get to it. I have a very specific purpose for this database in New York and it needs to follow that convention. Thank you!

This would make for an interesting video. I'll put something together.

That sounds great Richard! Can't wait! Hopefully I will have that resolved before then, too! Thank you