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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 Eagle Island (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 Eagle Island. 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.

Name Variations for Eagle Island ...

When searching records, keep in mind that names and their spelling can change over time. Our sources include documents like maps, railroad schedules, Travel, Express and Shipping Guides. Many of these documents date from the 1800's and it's common to find spelling differences.

Although we can't give a definitive list, hopefully the following will give you a feel for the variations that might have occurred.

For example, a typical abbreviation for Eagle Island: Eagle Is. (in Canada, 'Isld.' is the more common abbreviation.)

If you have information about these names (such as the reason for the change, date of change, the origin of the name), please Contact Us.

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.

Eagle Island is located in Okeechobee 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 Okeechobee County: Glades, Highlands, Indian River, Martin, Osceola, Palm Beach & Saint Lucie.

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

  • Okeechobee County     (The home county of Eagle Island)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Eagle Island, with the one closest to Eagle Island listed first.
    • Cypress Quarters
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Cypress Quarters have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cypress Quarters
      • Cypress Quarters is located in Okeechobee County
    • Okeechobee
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
    • Taylor Creek
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Taylor Creek
      • Taylor Creek is located in Okeechobee County
  • Glades County
    • Buckhead Ridge
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Buckhead Ridge
      • Buckhead Ridge is located in Glades County
  • Highlands County
  • Indian River County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Eagle Island, with the one closest to Eagle Island listed first.
    • Fellsmere
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Florida Ridge
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Florida Ridge have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Florida Ridge
      • Florida Ridge is located in Indian River County
    • Vero Beach
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Osceola County
  • Saint Lucie County
    • Lakewood Park
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Lakewood Park have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lakewood Park
      • Lakewood Park is located in Saint Lucie County

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

Cemeteries Near Eagle Island ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Eagle Island.

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

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

  • Evergreen Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Evergreen Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Evergreen Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located 3 miles [4.8 km]<3> to the south of Okeechobee.
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #71954 <4>
  • Basinger Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Basinger Cemetery
    • 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.
  • Liveoak Park Memorial Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Liveoak Park Memorial Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Liveoak Park Memorial Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Ft. Kissimmee Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Ft. Kissimmee Cemetery
    • 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.

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

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we start with the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These websites either 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 Eagle Island:

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

The official website for Okeechobee County: www.co.okeechobee.fl.us/

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>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- Eagle Island) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Eagle Island. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 27.4423, Longitude: -80.8434       In this case, the coordinates for Eagle Island have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<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.




 

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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: 28 Mar 2025