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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 Fort Drum (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 Fort Drum. 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 Fort Drum ...

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.

For example, a typical abbreviation for Fort Drum: Ft. Drum

You might be interested in other communities that are also named Fort Drum. More information can be found on our Tidbits & Trivia Page for Fort Drum.

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 doctors and 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.

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

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

  • Okeechobee County     (The home county of Fort Drum)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Fort Drum, with the one closest to Fort Drum listed first.
    • Cypress Quarters
      (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
      • Cypress Quarters is located in Okeechobee County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cypress Quarters
    • Okeechobee
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
    • Taylor Creek
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
      • Taylor Creek is located in Okeechobee County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Taylor Creek
  • Brevard County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Fort Drum, with the one closest to Fort Drum listed first.
    • Barefoot Bay
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Micco
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Glades County
    • Buckhead Ridge
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
      • Buckhead Ridge is located in Glades County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Buckhead Ridge
  • Highlands County
  • Indian River County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Fort Drum, with the one closest to Fort Drum listed first.
    • Fellsmere
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Florida Ridge
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
      • Florida Ridge is located in Indian River County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Florida Ridge
    • Vero Beach
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
    • Gifford
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
      • Gifford is located in Indian River County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gifford
    • Wabasso
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Winter Beach
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
    • South Beach
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
      • South Beach is located in Indian River County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Beach
    • Roseland
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Sebastian
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Indian River Shores
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Orchid
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Orchid is located in Indian River County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Orchid
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 455 people
    • Wabasso Beach
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Wabasso Beach is located in Indian River County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wabasso Beach
  • Osceola County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Fort Drum, with the one closest to Fort Drum listed first.
    • Yeehaw Junction
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Kenansville
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Polk County
    • Cacema Town ‑ Historic
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Cacema Town is located in Polk County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cacema Town
  • Saint Lucie County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Fort Drum, with the one closest to Fort Drum listed first.
    • Lakewood Park
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
      • Lakewood Park is located in Saint Lucie County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lakewood Park
    • Saint Lucie Village
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
      • Saint Lucie Village is located in Saint Lucie County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Saint Lucie Village
      • Estimated population in 2015: 619 people
    • Saint Lucie
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
      • Saint Lucie is located in Saint Lucie County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Saint Lucie
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 648 people
    • Fort Pierce
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
    • White City
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
      • 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 Fort Drum, see our County-by-County Page for Fort Drum.

Cemeteries Near Fort Drum ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Fort Drum.

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 Fort Drum - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • Basinger Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Evergreen Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
  • Liveoak Park Memorial Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
  • Ft. Kissimmee Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
  • Old Sebastian Cemetery
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
  • Hillcrest Memorial Gardens
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
  • Hillcrest Memorial Gardens
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
  • Celia Padgett Cain Cemetery
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Pine Grove Cemetery
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
  • Garden of Heavenly Rest
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
  • Ft. Pierce Cemetery
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
  • Sebastian Cemetery
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)

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.<4>

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

  • Sebastian
    (28 miles [45.1 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 Fort Drum. See our List of 1890's Communities around Fort Drum.

Newspapers Published in Fort Drum ...

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 11 newspapers that have been published in the area around Fort Drum.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Fort Drum, there are papers which were published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<2>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Fort Drum.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first turn to 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 Fort Drum:

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 from Point A (ie- Fort Drum) 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.
<4>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 Fort Drum, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.