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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 Sunset Beach (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 Sunset Beach. 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.

Name Variations for Sunset Beach ...

When searching records, keep in mind that names and their spelling can change over time. Our sources include documents like maps, railroad schedules, Travel, Express and Shipping Guides. Many of these documents date from the 1800's and it's common to find spelling differences.

Although we can't give a definitive list, hopefully the following will give you a feel for the variations that might have occurred.

For example, a typical abbreviation for Sunset Beach: Sunset Bch.

If you have information about these names (such as the reason for the change, date of change, the origin of the name), please Contact Us.

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 northeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals were in the next county to the east. Almost all of the nearby churches and cemeteries were in the county to the north.

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 east contained birth and death records; the county to the north 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.

Sunset Beach is located in Grays Harbor County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Grays Harbor County: Jefferson, Lewis, Mason, Pacific & Thurston.

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

  • Grays Harbor County     (The home county of Sunset Beach)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Sunset Beach, with the one closest to Sunset Beach listed first.
    • Moclips
      (Less than 2 miles to the north)
    • Pacific Beach
      (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Copalis Beach
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Taholah
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Taholah
      • Taholah is located in Grays Harbor County
    • Ocean City
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
    • Copalis Crossing
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Humptulips
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
    • Axford
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Axford
      • Axford is located in Grays Harbor County
    • Oyehut
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oyehut
      • Oyehut is located in Grays Harbor County
    • Ocean Shores
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
    • Gray Gables
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Gray Gables have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gray Gables
      • Gray Gables is located in Grays Harbor County
    • Neilton
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Neilton have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Neilton
      • Neilton is located in Grays Harbor County
    • Grays Harbor City
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Grays Harbor City have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grays Harbor City
      • Grays Harbor City is located in Grays Harbor County
  • Jefferson County
    • Clearwater
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clearwater
      • Clearwater is located in Jefferson County

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

Newspapers Published in Sunset Beach ...

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 44 newspapers that have been published in the area around Sunset Beach.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Sunset Beach, there are papers which were published within 28 miles [45.1 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Sunset Beach.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first visit the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These helpful websites 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 Sunset Beach:

Cemeteries Near Sunset Beach ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Sunset Beach.

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 Sunset Beach covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

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

  • Sunset Memorial Park
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Sunset Memorial Park have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Sunset Memorial Park
  • Fern Hill Cemetery
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
  • Forest Hill Cemetery
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Forest Hill Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Forest Hill 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.<5>

While we didn't find Sunset Beach in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Sunset Beach.

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

  • Humptulips
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
  • Axford
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Axford
    • Axford is located in Grays Harbor County
  • Hoquiam
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hoquiam
    • Hoquiam is located in Grays Harbor County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 8,699 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Hoquiam <1>
  • Ocosta
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Ocosta have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ocosta
    • Ocosta is located in Grays Harbor County
  • Markham
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Markham have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Markham
    • Markham is located in Grays Harbor County
  • Aberdeen
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Aberdeen
    • Aberdeen is located in Grays Harbor County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 16,827 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Aberdeen <1>
  • South Aberdeen
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Aberdeen
    • South Aberdeen is located in Grays Harbor County
  • Cosmopolis
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Aberdeen Junction
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Aberdeen Junction have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Aberdeen Junction
    • Aberdeen Junction is located in Grays Harbor County

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

Unfortunately, we don't know of a website for Sunset Beach. If you can help, please contact us through our Feedback Page.

The official website for Grays Harbor County: www.co.grays-harbor.wa.us/

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' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Sunset Beach) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Sunset Beach. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 47.2259, Longitude: -124.2091       In this case, the coordinates for Sunset Beach have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<4>The Find-a-Grave website is an excellent research tool with information about a cemetery's location and interments. They also offer a forum for their members which can provide additional help. More information about Find-a-Grave can be found on their website: findagrave.com.
<5>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 Sunset Beach, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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In closing, please keep in mind that we can not guarantee the accuracy or timeliness of the information on this website, so use with care. We encourage you to double-check the information that is critical to you.

If you've found an error or have additional information that you would like to share, please don't hesitate to write: Click here to contact us.

This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024