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The Commemorative Quarter for Washington





Our Genealogy Helper

Introduction ...

We have a couple of goals for our Gazetteer:

  • That it be a tool which helps us with planning our trips.
  • We're trying to shape our Gazetteer as a tool to help us understand the community in which our ancestors lived, the community that was part of their daily lives.
  • On our trips, we try to visit those places where our ancestors left their footprints.

By learning about Forks (and the surrounding area) during the time that our ancestors lived, we hope to have a better understanding of both their community and its relationship to their lifes. We hope that this tool helps to give us an insight into their world.

As we add data and organize our Gazetteer to help with our family research, we will be adding to this our Genealogical Helper for Forks. While we don't have information that is specific to any given person or family, we intend to expand our understanding about where and how people lived.

Neighboring Counties ...

When searching for family records, we have frequently made the mistake of not checking the neighboring counties.

For example, we have great-grandparents who lived in the southwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors and hospitals were in the next county to the west. Almost all of the nearby churches and cemeteries were in the county to the south.

So when searching for records, we had our best success by looking in neighboring counties instead of the county in which they lived:  their home county contained property and probate records; the county to the west contained birth and death records; the county to the south contained their burial records. If we hadn't included the neighboring counties, we would have missed many valuable sources of information.

If you're in a similar situation, we hope that the following information helps.

Forks is located in Clallam County.

To see how the shape of Washington's counties have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

Below are the counties that are near Forks. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Forks:

  • Clallam County     (The home county of Forks)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Forks, with the one closest to Forks listed first.
    • Shuwah
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shuwah
      • Shuwah is located in Clallam County
    • Beaver
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • La Push
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
    • Ozette
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ozette
      • Ozette is located in Clallam County
    • Clallam Bay
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
    • Sekiu
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
    • Twin
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Twin have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Twin
      • Twin is located in Clallam County
    • Neah Bay
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
    • Waatch
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Waatch
      • Waatch is located in Clallam County
  • Jefferson County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Forks, with the one closest to Forks listed first.
    • Oil City
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Oil City have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oil City
      • Oil City is located in Jefferson County
    • Clearwater
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clearwater
      • Clearwater is located in Jefferson County

For an expanded list of the communities that are closest to Forks, see our County-by-County Page for Forks.

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Forks ...

An ongoing effort between the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has resulted in the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).

To share their results, the partnership has created the Chronicling America website. The goal of this partnership is to assemble a database about the current and historic newspapers of the United States. This includes a growing collection of scanned images from selected papers. All of it available to the public on their website.

Using information that we've taken from the Chronicling America website, we've identified 7 newspapers that have been published in the area around Forks.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Forks. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Forks and those printed in the larger area surrounding Forks.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 21 miles [33.8 km]<3> of Forks.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we begin with the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These websites either offer the information directly or else point to where you can find it. Their information is open to everyone.

To help you get started, the following links will take you to the pages that are relevant to Forks:

Cemeteries Near Forks ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Forks.

This is a new section and is likely to have errors. If you find an error, such as a missing cemetery or we have the wrong name, please let us know. If you know of them, we would also appreciate learning about previous or alternate names.

If you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our selection of Genealogy Websites (see below).

If not found below, our Cemetery List for Forks covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Forks, with the one closest to Forks listed first.

  • Forks Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Forks Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Forks Cemetery
  • Quillayute Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Quillayute Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Quillayute Cemetery
  • Fletcher Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Fletcher Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Fletcher Cemetery
  • Old Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Old Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Old Cemetery
  • Old Clallam Bay Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Old Clallam Bay Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Old Clallam Bay Cemetery

Nearby Communities in 1895 ...

We've built the following list with information that came from an Atlas published by Rand McNally in 1895. The Atlas had details such as the population of the community (which appears to have come from the 1890 Census) and whether there was a post office and/or railroad service available. We also indicate if the community no longer exists and is now historic.<4>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that in 1895, Forks had a post office and no railroad service. In 2020, Forks had a population of 3,914 people.

These communities are listed based on their distance from Forks, with the one closest to Forks listed first.

  • Shuwah
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shuwah
    • Shuwah is located in Clallam County
  • Beaver
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
  • Quillayute
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Quillayute have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Quillayute
    • Quillayute is located in Clallam County
  • La Push
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
  • Ozette
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ozette
    • Ozette is located in Clallam County
  • Pysht ‑ Historic
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Pysht have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pysht
    • Pysht is located in Clallam County
  • Clallam Bay
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
  • Fairholm
    (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Fairholm have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fairholm
    • Fairholm is located in Clallam County
  • Twin
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Twin have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Twin
    • Twin is located in Clallam County

We've also created an expanded list of communities that existed in the 1890's and were located in the area around Forks. See our List of 1890's Communities around Forks.

The official website for Forks: www.forkswashington.org/

The official website for Clallam County: www.clallam.net/

The official website for State of Washington: https://access.wa.gov/

Footnotes ...

<1>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<2>The location has been supplied by the Geographic Names Information System - which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While these values should be definitive, we found that accuracy can vary and you should double-check the location if accuracy is required.
<3>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Forks) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Forks. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 47.9516, Longitude: -124.3854    
<4>We use the term 'Historic' broadly and it generally means that the community no longer exists. However, it can also mean that the community might still exist, but was significantly larger or had a more 'official' existence in the past than it does now. Unfortunately our sources of data have proven to be unreliable. If you can provide us with more specific information about Forks, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024