Hi Paul,
Thank you for your kind reply. I think you have a good idea, using the historical place name. Another researcher, finding the original name of the church / community, would have an easier time locating the original church records.
I have a separate but related problem: some of the original church records do not specify if events occurred in the town or just the parish, by the same name. I suppose census records would be the next logical place to look, but if the original record lacks a detail I'm interested in, there aren't many (if any) options for proving where the event (birth, death, etc.) took place.
I'll keep digging. Thanks again for your feedback.
Joel