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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 Christmas (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 Christmas. 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 and 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.

Christmas is located in Orange 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 Orange County: Brevard, Lake, Osceola, Polk & Seminole.

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

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

Cemeteries Near Christmas ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Christmas.

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

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

  • Christmas Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Christmas Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Christmas Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Chuluota Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Chuluota Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Chuluota Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Rouse Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Rouse Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Rouse Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Slavia Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Slavia Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Slavia Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Chapel Hill Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Chapel Hill Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Chapel Hill Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • St. Luke's Parish Episcopal Church Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Luke's Parish Episcopal Church Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Luke's Parish Episcopal Church Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Geneva Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Geneva Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Geneva Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Pine Crest Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Pine Crest Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Pine Crest Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Bethel Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Bethel Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Bethel Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Davis Grave Site
    (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Davis Grave Site
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Davis Grave Site have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Williams Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
  • Florida Memorial Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Florida Memorial Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Florida Memorial Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Continue List   (35 more) ...
    • Brevard Memorial Park
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Brevard Memorial Park
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Brevard Memorial Park have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Crook Family Cemetery
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Pinewood Cemetery
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Pinewood Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Pinewood Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.

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.<5>

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

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

  • Titusville
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Mims
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Turnbull
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Turnbull have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Turnbull
    • Turnbull is located in Brevard County
  • Aurantia
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Sharpes
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
  • City Point
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for City Point have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for City Point
    • City Point is located in Brevard County
  • Maytown
    (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
  • Goldenrod
    (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
  • Cocoa
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
  • Indianola
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Indianola have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Indianola
    • Indianola is located in Brevard County
  • Cow Creek
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Cow Creek have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cow Creek
    • Cow Creek is located in Volusia County
  • Conway
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Conway have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Conway
    • Conway is located in Orange County
  • Continue List   (13 more) ...

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

Newspapers Published in Christmas ...

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 58 newspapers that have been published in the area around Christmas.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Christmas, there are papers which were published within 24 miles [38.6 km]<6>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Christmas.

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 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 Christmas:

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

The official website for Orange County: www.orangecountyfl.net/

The official website for State of Florida: https://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>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.
<5>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 Christmas, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<6>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Christmas) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Christmas. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 28.5370, Longitude: -80.9963    









 

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This page was last modified/updated: 28 Mar 2025