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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 Canton (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 Canton. 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 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.

Canton is located in Hartford County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Hartford County: Litchfield, Middlesex, New Haven, New London, Tolland & Hampden (MA).

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

  • Hartford County     (The home county of Canton)
  • Litchfield County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Canton, with the one closest to Canton listed first.
    • Pine Meadow
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Puddle Town
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
      • Puddle Town is located in Litchfield County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Puddle Town
    • Browns Corner
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • New Hartford
      (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
    • Nepaug
      (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • New Hartford
      (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
      • New Hartford is located in Litchfield County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for New Hartford
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 6,639 people
    • Torrington
      (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
      • Torrington is located in Litchfield County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Torrington
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 33,870 people
    • Barkhamsted
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • Pleasant Valley
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Hampsted
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
      • Hampsted is located in Litchfield County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hampsted
    • Barkhamsted
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
      • Barkhamsted is located in Litchfield County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Barkhamsted
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 3,587 people
    • Harwinton
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
      • Harwinton is located in Litchfield County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harwinton
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 5,400 people
    • Burrville
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
  • Middlesex County
  • New Haven County
  • New London County
  • Tolland County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Canton, with the one closest to Canton listed first.
    • Vernon
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
    • Windermere
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
    • Ellington
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
    • Vernon
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
      • Vernon is located in Tolland County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Vernon
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 29,400 people
    • Ellington
      (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
      • Ellington is located in Tolland County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ellington
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 16,652 people
    • Rockville
      (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
    • Somersville
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
    • Bolton
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
      • Bolton is located in Tolland County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bolton
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 4,855 people
    • Bolton
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
    • Gay City ‑ Historic
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
    • Quarryville
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
      • Quarryville is located in Tolland County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Quarryville
    • Somers
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Somers is located in Tolland County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Somers
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 10,741 people
    • Somers
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
  • Berkshire County (MA)
  • Hampden County (MA)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Canton, with the one closest to Canton listed first.
    • Granville
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
      • Granville is located in Hampden County (MA)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Granville
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,606 people
    • Southwick
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
      • Southwick is located in Hampden County (MA)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Southwick
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 9,715 people
    • West Granville
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
    • Tolland
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
      • Tolland is located in Hampden County (MA)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tolland
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 506 people
    • Hosmer Corner
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
    • Feeding Hills
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Westfield
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
    • Agawam
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Longmeadow
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Woronoco
      (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
    • Blandford
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
      • Blandford is located in Hampden County (MA)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Blandford
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,249 people
    • Hampton Village
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
      • Hampton Village is located in Hampden County (MA)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hampton Village
    • Merrick
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
      • Merrick is located in Hampden County (MA)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Merrick
  • Hampshire County (MA)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Canton, with the one closest to Canton listed first.
    • Huntington
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
      • Huntington is located in Hampshire County (MA)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Huntington
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,159 people
    • Southampton
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
      • Southampton is located in Hampshire County (MA)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Southampton
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 6,162 people

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

Cemeteries Near Canton ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Canton.

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.

Although we don't have the information ourselves, if you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our list of websites on our Genealogy Helper Page for Canton - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

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.<3>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Canton had a population of 200 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service.

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

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

Newspapers Published in Canton ...

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 50 newspapers that have been published in the area around Canton.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Canton, there are papers which were published within 13 miles [20.9 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Canton.

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 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 Canton:

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 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.
<3>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 Canton, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<4>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Canton) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.