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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 Meade (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 Meade. 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 Meade ...

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 Fort Meade: Ft. Meade

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 northeast 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 north.

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 north 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 Meade is located in Polk 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 Polk County: Hardee, Highlands, Hillsborough, Lake, Manatee, Orange, Osceola, Pasco & Sumter.

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

  • Polk County     (The home county of Fort Meade)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Fort Meade, with the one closest to Fort Meade listed first.
    • Oponys Town ‑ Historic
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Oponys Town have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oponys Town
      • Oponys Town is located in Polk County
    • Homeland
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Bartow
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
    • Cox Corner ‑ Historic
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cox Corner
      • Cox Corner is located in Polk County
    • Lake Garfield
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lake Garfield
      • Lake Garfield is located in Polk County
    • Roux Quarters ‑ Historic
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Roux Quarters have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Roux Quarters
      • Roux Quarters is located in Polk County
    • Alturas
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Armour ‑ Historic
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Armour. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Armour
      • Armour is located in Polk County
    • Connersville
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Connersville
      • Connersville is located in Polk County
    • Brewster ‑ Historic
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Brewster have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brewster
      • Brewster is located in Polk County
    • Lyle Corner
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lyle Corner
      • Lyle Corner is located in Polk County
    • Gordonville
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gordonville
      • Gordonville is located in Polk County
  • DeSoto County
    • Calvinia ‑ Historic
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
      • 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
  • Hardee County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Fort Meade, with the one closest to Fort Meade listed first.
    • Bowling Green
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Wauchula
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
    • Zolfo Springs
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
    • Ona
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
  • Highlands County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Fort Meade, with the one closest to Fort Meade listed first.
    • Alpine
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Alpine
      • Alpine is located in Highlands County
    • Avon Park
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Sebring
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Hillsborough County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Fort Meade, with the one closest to Fort Meade listed first.
    • Welcome
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Welcome
      • Welcome is located in Hillsborough County
    • Lithia
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
    • Pinecrest
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
    • South Plant City Farms
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for South Plant City Farms have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Plant City Farms
      • South Plant City Farms is located in Hillsborough County
    • Parrish
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Parrish have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Parrish
      • Parrish is located in Hillsborough County
    • Durant
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Kings Village
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Kings Village have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kings Village
      • Kings Village is located in Hillsborough County
    • West Plant City Farms
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for West Plant City Farms have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West Plant City Farms
      • West Plant City Farms is located in Hillsborough County
    • West Plant City
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for West Plant City have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West Plant City
      • West Plant City is located in Hillsborough County
    • Fish Hawk
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Fish Hawk have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fish Hawk
      • Fish Hawk is located in Hillsborough County
    • Colonial Village
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Colonial Village have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Colonial Village
      • Colonial Village is located in Hillsborough County
    • Boyette
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Boyette have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Boyette
      • Boyette is located in Hillsborough County
  • Manatee County

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Fort Meade ...

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 40 newspapers that have been published in the area around Fort Meade.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Fort Meade. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Fort Meade and those printed in the larger area surrounding Fort Meade.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 21 miles [33.8 km]<4> of Fort Meade.

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 Meade:

Cemeteries Near Fort Meade ...

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

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

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

  • Evergreen Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
  • Ft. Meade Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
  • Hancock Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
  • New Hope Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
    • The New Hope Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Mt. Pleasant Cemetery
    • New Hope Methodist Episcopal Cemetery
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the New Hope Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #72336 <5>
  • Pleasant Grove Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
  • Homeland Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
  • Crum - Durrance Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Crum - Durrance Cemetery is located outside and to the west of Homeland.
    • The Crum - Durrance Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Crum Cemetery
    • Durrance Cemetery
    • Homeland Cemetery
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Crum - Durrance Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2198368 <5>
  • Old Elim Church Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
  • Watson Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
  • Shady Oaks Gardens
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
  • Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
  • Lake Buffum Baptist Church Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
  • Continue List   (75 more) ...
    • Fortner Family Cemetery
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Fortner Family Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • The Fortner Family Cemetery has also been known as:
      • Peace Creek Cemetery
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Fortner Family Cemetery
      • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2349899 <5>
    • Wildwood Cemetery
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
    • Olive Branch Cemetery
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Olive Branch Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Olive Branch Cemetery

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>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Fort Meade had a population of 267 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Fort Meade had a population of 6,260 people.

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

  • Homeland
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
  • Bowling Green
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
  • Bartow
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
  • Gordonville
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gordonville
    • Gordonville is located in Polk County
  • Wauchula
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
  • Wahneta
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wahneta
    • Wahneta is located in Polk County
  • Eagle Lake
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
  • Zolfo Springs
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
  • Winter Haven
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
  • Keysville
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Keysville have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Keysville
    • Keysville is located in Hillsborough County
  • Avon Park
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
  • Auburndale
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
  • Continue List   (10 more) ...
    • Lakeland
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Crewsville
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
      • 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
    • Plant City
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)

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

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

The official website for Polk County: www.polk-county.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 drawn from Point A (ie- Fort Meade) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Fort Meade. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 27.7520, Longitude: -81.8015    
<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 Fort Meade, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024