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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 Childs (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 Childs. 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 southeast 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 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 east 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.

Childs is located in Highlands 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 Highlands County: Charlotte, DeSoto, Glades, Hardee, Okeechobee, Osceola & Polk.

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

  • Highlands County     (The home county of Childs)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Childs, with the one closest to Childs listed first.
    • Archbold
      (Less than 2 miles to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Archbold
      • Archbold is located in Highlands County
    • Placid Lakes
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Placid Lakes have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Placid Lakes
      • Placid Lakes is located in Highlands County
    • Lake Placid
      (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Sylvan Shores
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Sylvan Shores have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sylvan Shores
      • Sylvan Shores is located in Highlands County
    • Venus
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
    • De Soto City
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for De Soto City have been provided by the GNIS.<1> 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
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
    • Sebring
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
    • Avon Park
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
    • Alpine
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Alpine
      • Alpine is located in Highlands County
  • DeSoto County
    • Calvinia ‑ Historic
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
      • 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
  • Glades County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Childs, with the one closest to Childs listed first.
    • Palmdale
      (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
    • Lakeport
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Hall City
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Hall City have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hall City
      • Hall City is located in Glades County
    • Buckhead Ridge
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Buckhead Ridge
      • Buckhead Ridge is located in Glades County
    • Moore Haven
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)

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

Newspapers Published in Childs ...

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 14 newspapers that have been published in the area around Childs.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Childs, 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 Childs.

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 Childs:

Cemeteries Near Childs ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Childs.

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

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

  • Oak Hill Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Oak Hill Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Oak Hill Cemetery
  • Whitten Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Whitten Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Whitten Cemetery
  • Prescott Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Prescott Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Prescott Cemetery
  • Lakeside Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Lakeside Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Lakeside Cemetery
  • Pinecrest Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Pinecrest Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Pinecrest Cemetery
  • Oak Creek Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Oak Creek Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Oak Creek Cemetery
  • Basinger Cemetery
    (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Basinger Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Basinger Cemetery
  • Lakeview Memorial Gardens
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
  • Ortona Cemetery
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
  • Ft. Kissimmee Cemetery
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Ft. Kissimmee Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Ft. Kissimmee Cemetery
  • Joshua Creek Cemetery
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Joshua Creek Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Joshua Creek Cemetery
  • Bougainvillea Cemetery
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)

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 Childs in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Childs.

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

  • Crewsville
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Crewsville have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crewsville
    • Crewsville is located in Hardee County
  • Avon Park
    (28 miles [45.1 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 Childs. See our List of 1890's Communities around Childs.

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

The official website for Highlands County: www.hcbcc.net/

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

Footnotes ...

<1>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.
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<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 from Point A (ie- Childs) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Childs. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 27.2098, Longitude: -81.3448       In this case, the coordinates for Childs 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 Childs, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024