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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 Hillcrest Heights (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 Hillcrest Heights. 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 Hillcrest Heights ...

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 Hillcrest Heights: Hillcrest Hts. (in Canada, 'Hgts.' 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 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.

Hillcrest Heights 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 Hillcrest Heights. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Hillcrest Heights:

  • Polk County     (The home county of Hillcrest Heights)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Hillcrest Heights, with the one closest to Hillcrest Heights listed first.
    • Babson Park
      (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
    • Highland Park
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Highland Park
      • Highland Park is located in Polk County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 221 people
    • Crooked Lake Park
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Crooked Lake Park have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crooked Lake Park
      • Crooked Lake Park is located in Polk County
    • Frostproof
      (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Nalcrest
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Lake Wales
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Lakeshore
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
    • Indian Lake Estates
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
    • Waverly
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Pittsburg
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pittsburg
      • Pittsburg is located in Polk County
    • Alturas
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
    • Cypress Gardens
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Cox Corner ‑ Historic
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cox Corner
      • Cox Corner is located in Polk County
  • Hardee County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Hillcrest Heights, with the one closest to Hillcrest Heights listed first.
    • Bowling Green
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Wauchula
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Zolfo Springs
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Crewsville
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Crewsville. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crewsville
      • Crewsville is located in Hardee County
  • Highlands County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Hillcrest Heights, with the one closest to Hillcrest Heights listed first.
    • Alpine
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Alpine
      • Alpine is located in Highlands County
    • Avon Park
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
    • Sebring
      (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
    • De Soto City
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for De Soto City have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for De Soto City
      • De Soto City is located in Highlands County
  • Osceola County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Hillcrest Heights, with the one closest to Hillcrest Heights listed first.
    • Poinciana Place
      (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Poinciana Place have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Poinciana Place
      • Poinciana Place is located in Osceola County
    • Poinciana
      (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
    • Campbell
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Campbell have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Campbell
      • Campbell is located in Osceola County
    • ChampionsGate
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for ChampionsGate
      • ChampionsGate is located in Osceola County
    • Intercession City
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)

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

Cemeteries Near Hillcrest Heights ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Hillcrest Heights.

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

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

  • Biscuit Lake Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
  • Garden Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Garden Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Garden Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Lake Wales Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Silver Hill Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
  • Willow Lawn Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Mt. Zion Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Eden Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Lake Buffum Baptist Church Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
  • Corinth Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Corinth Cemetery
    • The Corinth Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Bereah Cemetery
    • Corinth Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2242863 <4>
  • Friendship MB Church Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Wahneta Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Pleasant Grove Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
  • Continue List   (65 more) ...
    • Bougainvillea Cemetery
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
    • Fortner Family Cemetery
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Fortner Family Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Fortner Family Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • The Fortner Family Cemetery has also been known as:
      • Peace Creek Cemetery
      • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2349899 <4>
    • Evergreen Cemetery
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)

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 Hillcrest Heights in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Hillcrest Heights.

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

  • Wahneta
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wahneta
    • Wahneta is located in Polk County
  • Avon Park
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
  • Fort Meade
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
  • Eagle Lake
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
  • Homeland
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
  • Winter Haven
    (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
  • Gordonville
    (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gordonville
    • Gordonville is located in Polk County
  • Bartow
    (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
  • Haines City
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
  • Bowling Green
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Auburndale
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
  • Wauchula
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Zolfo Springs
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Crewsville
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Crewsville. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crewsville
    • Crewsville is located in Hardee County

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

Newspapers Published in Hillcrest Heights ...

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 76 newspapers that have been published in the area around Hillcrest Heights.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Hillcrest Heights, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<6>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Hillcrest Heights.

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 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 Hillcrest Heights:

Unfortunately, we don't know of a website for Hillcrest Heights. 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: 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 Hillcrest Heights, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<6>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Hillcrest Heights) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Hillcrest Heights. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 27.8242, Longitude: -81.5340       In this case, the coordinates for Hillcrest Heights have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 28 Mar 2025