RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Florida >> DeSoto County >> Arcadia >> Genealogy HelperIndex...










Learn About
The Commemorative
Quarter for
Florida

The Commemorative Quarter for Florida





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 Arcadia (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 Arcadia. 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.

Arcadia is located in DeSoto County and is the County Seat.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of DeSoto County: Charlotte, Glades, Hardee, Highlands, Manatee & Sarasota.

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

  • DeSoto County     (The home county of Arcadia)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Arcadia, with the one closest to Arcadia listed first.
    • Nocatee
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • Calvinia ‑ Historic
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Calvinia. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Calvinia
      • Calvinia is located in DeSoto County
    • Fort Ogden
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
  • Charlotte County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Arcadia, with the one closest to Arcadia listed first.
    • Harbour Heights
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Harbour Heights have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harbour Heights
      • Harbour Heights is located in Charlotte County
    • Cleveland
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cleveland
      • Cleveland is located in Charlotte County
    • Harbor View
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harbor View
      • Harbor View is located in Charlotte County
    • Charlotte Harbor
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Port Charlotte
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Solana
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Solana have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Solana
      • Solana is located in Charlotte County
    • Murdock
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Punta Gorda
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Fishermens Village
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Fishermens Village have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fishermens Village
      • Fishermens Village is located in Charlotte County
    • Charlotte Park
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Charlotte Park have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Charlotte Park
      • Charlotte Park is located in Charlotte County
    • El Jobean
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Hardee County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Arcadia, with the one closest to Arcadia listed first.
    • Ona
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
    • Zolfo Springs
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
    • Wauchula
      (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
    • Bowling Green
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
  • Highlands County
    • Placid Lakes
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Placid Lakes have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Placid Lakes
      • Placid Lakes is located in Highlands County
  • Manatee County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Arcadia, with the one closest to Arcadia listed first.
    • Sandy
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sandy
      • Sandy is located in Manatee County
    • Myakka City
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Verna
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Verna
      • Verna is located in Manatee County
    • Duette
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Sarasota County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Arcadia, with the one closest to Arcadia listed first.
    • North Port
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Warm Mineral Springs
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Shiney Town
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Shiney Town have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shiney Town
      • Shiney Town is located in Sarasota County

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Arcadia ...

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 30 newspapers that have been published in the area around Arcadia.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Arcadia. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Arcadia and those printed in the larger area surrounding Arcadia.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<4> of Arcadia.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first turn to 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 Arcadia:

Cemeteries Near Arcadia ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Arcadia.

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

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

  • Oak Ridge Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Oak Ridge Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Oak Ridge Cemetery
  • Lamp Grounds Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Lamp Grounds Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Lamp Grounds Cemetery
  • Owens Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Owens Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Owens Cemetery
  • Joshua Creek Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Joshua Creek Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Joshua Creek Cemetery
  • Hull Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Hull Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Hull Cemetery
  • Coker Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Coker Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Coker Cemetery
  • Pine Level Campground Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Pine Level Campground Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Pine Level Campground Cemetery
  • Ogden Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Ogden Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Ogden Cemetery
  • Ft. Ogden Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Ft. Ogden Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Ft. Ogden Cemetery
  • Oak Grove Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Oak Grove Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Oak Grove Cemetery
  • Cleveland Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Cleveland Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Cleveland Cemetery
  • Oak Creek Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Oak Creek Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Oak Creek Cemetery
  • Continue List   (10 more) ...
    • Restlawn Memorial Gardens
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Wauchula Cemetery
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
    • Sardis Cemetery
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Sardis Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Sardis 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.<6>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Arcadia had a population of 152 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Arcadia had a population of 8,442 people.

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

  • Nocatee
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
  • Pine Level
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Pine Level have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pine Level
    • Pine Level is located in DeSoto County
  • Calvinia ‑ Historic
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Calvinia. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Calvinia
    • Calvinia is located in DeSoto County
  • Fort Ogden
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
  • Sandy
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sandy
    • Sandy is located in Manatee County
  • Cleveland
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cleveland
    • Cleveland is located in Charlotte County
  • Zolfo Springs
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
  • Harbor View
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harbor View
    • Harbor View is located in Charlotte County
  • Charlotte Harbor
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Punta Gorda
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Crewsville
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Crewsville have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crewsville
    • Crewsville is located in Hardee County
  • Wauchula
    (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
  • Bowling Green
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)

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

The official website for Arcadia: www.cityofarcadia.org/

The official website for DeSoto County: www.co.desoto.fl.us/

The official website for State of Florida: www.myflorida.com/

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>An 'estimated' location is one where we have been given GPS coordinates, but are unable to verify the accuracy of those coordinates. That said, we have some confidence that we have placed the marker near the actual location. A typical reason for being unable to verify a location is that it might be on private property or maybe historic and gone without an obvious trace.
<3>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.
<4>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 from Point A (ie- Arcadia) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Arcadia. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 27.2162, Longitude: -81.8592    
<5>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.
<6>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 Arcadia, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

Copyright 2024
All Rights Reserved

Thank you for visiting our website.

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