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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 Hastings (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 Hastings. 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 northwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors were in the next county to the west. 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 west 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.

Hastings is located in Saint Johns 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 Saint Johns County: Clay, Duval, Flagler & Putnam.

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

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

Cemeteries Near Hastings ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Hastings.

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

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

  • Resthaven Cemetery & Memorial Park
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Resthaven Cemetery & Memorial Park
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Resthaven Cemetery & Memorial Park have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • St. Pauls Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Pauls Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Pauls Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Yelvington Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Yelvington Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Yelvington Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • West View Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the West View Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the West View Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • San Mateo Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the San Mateo Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the San Mateo Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Putnam County Poor Farm Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
  • Oak Hill Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Oak Hill Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Oak Hill Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • St. Joseph Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Joseph Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Joseph Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Palatka Memorial Gardens
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Pellicer Creek Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Pellicer Creek Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Pellicer Creek Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Peniel Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Peniel Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Peniel Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Barnes Memorial Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Barnes Memorial Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Barnes Memorial Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Continue List   (56 more) ...
    • Bakersville Cemetery
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Bakersville Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Bakersville Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Etonia Cemetery
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Etonia Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Etonia Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Satsuma Cemetery
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Satsuma Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Satsuma Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> 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 Hastings in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Hastings.

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

  • Federal Point
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
  • Orange Mills
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Orange Mills have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Orange Mills
    • Orange Mills is located in Putnam County
  • Armstrong
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
  • Bridgeport
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Bridgeport have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bridgeport
    • Bridgeport is located in Putnam County
  • Yelvington
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Yelvington have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Yelvington
    • Yelvington is located in Putnam County
  • East Palatka
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
  • Bostwick
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
  • Teasdale
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Teasdale have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Teasdale
    • Teasdale is located in Putnam County
  • San Mateo
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Tocoi
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
  • Palatka
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
  • Lundy
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Lundy have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lundy
    • Lundy is located in Putnam County
  • Continue List   (13 more) ...
    • West Tocoi
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for West Tocoi have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West Tocoi
      • West Tocoi is located in Clay County
    • Peniel
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Peniel. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Peniel
      • Peniel is located in Putnam County
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Peniel
      • From Hastings to Peniel
    • Francis
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Francis have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Francis
      • Francis is located in Putnam County

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Hastings ...

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 46 newspapers that have been published in the area around Hastings.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Hastings. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Hastings and those printed in the larger area surrounding Hastings.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 23 miles [37 km]<6> of Hastings.

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 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 Hastings:

The official website for Hastings: www.hastings-fl.com/

The official website for Saint Johns County: www.co.st-johns.fl.us/

The official website for State of Florida: https://www.myflorida.com/

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 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.
<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 Hastings, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<6>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Hastings) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Hastings. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 29.7190, Longitude: -81.5083    









 

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This page was last modified/updated: 28 Mar 2025