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A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
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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 Bessemer (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 Bessemer. 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 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.

Bessemer is located in Martin County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Martin County: Glades, Okeechobee, Palm Beach & Saint Lucie.

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

  • Martin County     (The home county of Bessemer)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Bessemer, with the one closest to Bessemer listed first.
    • Port Mayaca
      (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Indiantown
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
    • Palm City
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
    • North River Shores
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
      • North River Shores is located in Martin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North River Shores
    • Stuart
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Port Salerno
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
    • Rio
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
      • Rio is located in Martin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rio
    • Hobe Sound
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
    • Jensen Beach
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Ocean Breeze
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Ocean Breeze is located in Martin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ocean Breeze
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 413 people
      • Former name for Ocean Breeze:
      • Ocean Breeze Park
    • Sewall's Point
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Jupiter Island
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
      • Jupiter Island is located in Martin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jupiter Island
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 941 people
  • Glades County
    • Buckhead Ridge
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
      • Buckhead Ridge is located in Glades County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Buckhead Ridge
  • Hendry County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Bessemer, with the one closest to Bessemer listed first.
    • Clewiston
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Harlem
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Harlem is located in Hendry County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harlem
  • Okeechobee County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Bessemer, with the one closest to Bessemer listed first.
    • Taylor Creek
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
      • Taylor Creek is located in Okeechobee County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Taylor Creek
    • Cypress Quarters
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Cypress Quarters is located in Okeechobee County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cypress Quarters
    • Okeechobee
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Palm Beach County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Bessemer, with the one closest to Bessemer listed first.
    • Sand Cut ‑ Historic
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
      • Sand Cut is located in Palm Beach County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sand Cut
    • Bryant ‑ Historic
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
    • Canal Point
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
      • Canal Point is located in Palm Beach County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Canal Point
      • Former names for Canal Point:
      • Canalpoint
      • Long Beach
      • Nemaha
      • New Town
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Canal Point <1>
    • Pahokee
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
    • Pelican Lake
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
      • Pelican Lake is located in Palm Beach County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pelican Lake
      • Pelican Lake has also been known as:
      • Pelican Bay
    • Fremd Village - Padgett Island
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
    • Fremd Village
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
      • Fremd Village is located in Palm Beach County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fremd Village
    • Kraemer ‑ Historic
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
      • Kraemer is located in Palm Beach County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kraemer
    • Torry Island ‑ Historic
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
      • Torry Island is located in Palm Beach County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Torry Island
    • Chosen ‑ Historic
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
      • Chosen is located in Palm Beach County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chosen
    • Belle Glade
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
    • Ritta ‑ Historic
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
      • Ritta is located in Palm Beach County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ritta
      • Ritta has also been known as:
      • Ritta Island
    • Bean City
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
      • Bean City is located in Palm Beach County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bean City
  • Saint Lucie County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Bessemer, with the one closest to Bessemer listed first.
    • Port Saint Lucie
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
    • Hutchinson Island South
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Indian River Estates
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
      • Indian River Estates is located in Saint Lucie County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Indian River Estates
    • White City
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
      • White City is located in Saint Lucie County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for White City

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

Cemeteries Near Bessemer ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Bessemer.

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 Bessemer - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • Port Mayaca Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
  • Foreverglades Mausoleum Gardens
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
  • Liveoak Park Memorial Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Evergreen Cemetery
    (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
  • Fern Hill Cemetery
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
  • Ridgelawn Cemetery
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
  • All Saints Cemetery
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)

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

Newspapers Published in Bessemer ...

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 29 newspapers that have been published in the area around Bessemer.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Bessemer, there are papers which were published within 28 miles [45.1 km]<2>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Bessemer.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we like to start with 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 Bessemer:

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>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- Bessemer) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<3>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.