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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 Bereah (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 Bereah. 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 northwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals were in the next county to the west. 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 west 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.

Bereah is located in Polk County.

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 Polk County: Hardee, Highlands, Hillsborough, Lake, Manatee, Orange, Osceola, Pasco & Sumter.

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

  • Polk County     (The home county of Bereah)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Bereah, with the one closest to Bereah listed first.
    • Pittsburg
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pittsburg
      • Pittsburg is located in Polk County
    • Frostproof
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Crooked Lake Park
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Crooked Lake Park have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crooked Lake Park
      • Crooked Lake Park is located in Polk County
    • Hillcrest Heights
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Hillcrest Heights have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hillcrest Heights
      • Hillcrest Heights is located in Polk County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 305 people
    • Fort Meade
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Babson Park
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Oponys Town ‑ Historic
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Oponys Town have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oponys Town
      • Oponys Town is located in Polk County
    • Highland Park
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Highland Park
      • Highland Park is located in Polk County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 221 people
    • Alturas
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
    • Lake Wales
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
    • Homeland
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Cox Corner ‑ Historic
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cox Corner
      • Cox Corner is located in Polk County
  • DeSoto County
    • Calvinia ‑ Historic
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
      • 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.<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Calvinia
      • Calvinia is located in DeSoto County
  • Hardee County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Bereah, with the one closest to Bereah listed first.
    • Bowling Green
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
    • Wauchula
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Zolfo Springs
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Ona
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Highlands County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Bereah, with the one closest to Bereah listed first.
    • Avon Park
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Alpine
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Alpine
      • Alpine is located in Highlands County
    • Sebring
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
    • De Soto City
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for De Soto City have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for De Soto City
      • De Soto City is located in Highlands County
    • Lorida
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Sylvan Shores
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Sylvan Shores have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sylvan Shores
      • Sylvan Shores is located in Highlands County
    • Lake Placid
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Manatee County

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

Newspapers Published in Bereah ...

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 49 newspapers that have been published in the area around Bereah.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Bereah, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Bereah.

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 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 Bereah:

Cemeteries Near Bereah ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Bereah.

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Bereah, with the one closest to Bereah 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.<6>

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

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

  • Avon Park
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
  • Fort Meade
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Bowling Green
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
  • Wauchula
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Zolfo Springs
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
  • Crewsville
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Crewsville have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crewsville
    • Crewsville is located in Hardee County
  • Homeland
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Bartow
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
  • Wahneta
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wahneta
    • Wahneta is located in Polk County
  • Gordonville
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gordonville
    • Gordonville is located in Polk County
  • Eagle Lake
    (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
  • Calvinia ‑ Historic
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
    • 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.<3>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Calvinia
    • Calvinia is located in DeSoto County
  • Winter Haven
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
  • Auburndale
    (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 Bereah. See our List of 1890's Communities around Bereah.

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

The official website for Polk County: www.polk-county.net/

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>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>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.
<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 drawn from Point A (ie- Bereah) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Bereah. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 27.6611, Longitude: -81.6256       In this case, the coordinates for Bereah have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<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 Bereah, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024