RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Florida >> Saint Lucie County >> Fort Pierce Shores >> Genealogy HelperIndex...

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 Pierce Shores (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 Pierce Shores. 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 Pierce Shores ...

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 Pierce Shores: Ft. Pierce Shrs.

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 and doctors 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 Pierce Shores is located in Saint Lucie 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 Saint Lucie County: Indian River, Martin & Okeechobee.

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

  • Saint Lucie County     (The home county of Fort Pierce Shores)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Fort Pierce Shores, with the one closest to Fort Pierce Shores listed first.
    • Saint Lucie Village
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
      • 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
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
      • 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
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Lakewood Park
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
      • Lakewood Park is located in Saint Lucie County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lakewood Park
    • Indian River Estates
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
      • Indian River Estates is located in Saint Lucie County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Indian River Estates
    • White City
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
      • White City is located in Saint Lucie County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for White City
    • Hutchinson Island South
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
    • Port Saint Lucie
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
  • Brevard County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Fort Pierce Shores, with the one closest to Fort Pierce Shores listed first.
    • Micco
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Barefoot Bay
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Indian River County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Fort Pierce Shores, with the one closest to Fort Pierce Shores listed first.
    • South Beach
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
      • South Beach is located in Indian River County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Beach
    • Florida Ridge
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
      • Florida Ridge is located in Indian River County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Florida Ridge
    • Vero Beach
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Gifford
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Gifford is located in Indian River County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gifford
    • Indian River Shores
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
    • Winter Beach
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Wabasso
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Wabasso Beach
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
      • Wabasso Beach is located in Indian River County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wabasso Beach
    • North Beach
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
      • North Beach is located in Indian River County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Beach
    • Orchid
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
      • Orchid is located in Indian River County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Orchid
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 455 people
    • Sebastian
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Fellsmere
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Roseland
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Martin County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Fort Pierce Shores, with the one closest to Fort Pierce Shores listed first.
    • Jensen Beach
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
    • Ocean Breeze
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
      • Ocean Breeze is located in Martin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ocean Breeze
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 413 people
      • Former name for Ocean Breeze:
      • Ocean Breeze Park
    • North River Shores
      (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
      • North River Shores is located in Martin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North River Shores
    • Rio
      (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
      • Rio is located in Martin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rio
    • Sewall's Point
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
    • Stuart
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
    • Palm City
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
    • Port Salerno
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)

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

Cemeteries Near Fort Pierce Shores ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Fort Pierce Shores.

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 Pierce Shores - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • Ft. Pierce Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Garden of Heavenly Rest
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Pine Grove Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Hillcrest Memorial Gardens
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
  • White City Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
  • Hillcrest Memorial Gardens
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
  • All Saints Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
  • Fern Hill Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
  • Old Sebastian Cemetery
    (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
  • Sebastian Cemetery
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Celia Padgett Cain Cemetery
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)

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.<3>

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

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

  • Sebastian
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
  • Micco
    (29 miles [46.7 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 Pierce Shores. See our List of 1890's Communities around Fort Pierce Shores.

Newspapers Published in Fort Pierce Shores ...

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 26 newspapers that have been published in the area around Fort Pierce Shores.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Fort Pierce Shores, there are papers which were published within 25 miles [40.2 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Fort Pierce Shores.

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 professional and volunteer 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 Pierce Shores:

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>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.
<3>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 Pierce Shores, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<4>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 drawn from Point A (ie- Fort Pierce Shores) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.