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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 Lake Jem (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 Lake Jem. 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 Lake Jem ...

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 Lake Jem: Lk. Jem

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 doctors and 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.

Lake Jem is located in Lake 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 Lake County: Marion, Orange, Osceola, Polk, Seminole, Sumter & Volusia.

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

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

Cemeteries Near Lake Jem ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Lake Jem.

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

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

  • Lake Jem Burying Grounds
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
  • Tangerine Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
  • Astatula Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Astatula Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Astatula Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Pine Forest Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Pine Forest Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Pine Forest Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Zellwood Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Zellwood Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Zellwood Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Bay Ridge Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Bay Ridge Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Bay Ridge Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Sorrento Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Sorrento Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Sorrento Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Tavares Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Tavares Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Tavares Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Lane Park Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Lane Park Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Lane Park Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Taylor Memorial Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Taylor Memorial Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Taylor Memorial Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Plymouth Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Plymouth Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Plymouth Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Greenwood Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
  • Continue List   (101 more) ...
    • Yalaha Cemetery
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Yalaha Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Yalaha Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Lakeside Memory Gardens
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Lakeside Memory Gardens
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Lakeside Memory Gardens have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Marsh Memorial Park
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)

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

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

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

Newspapers Published in Lake Jem ...

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 53 newspapers that have been published in the area around Lake Jem.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Lake Jem, there are papers which were published within 20 miles [32.2 km]<6>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Lake Jem.

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 Lake Jem:

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

The official website for Lake County: www.lakegovernment.com/

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 Lake Jem, 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' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Lake Jem) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Lake Jem. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 28.7468, Longitude: -81.6646    









 

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In closing, please keep in mind that we can not guarantee the accuracy or timeliness of the information on this website, so use with care. We encourage you to double-check the information that is critical to you.

If you've found an error or have additional information that you would like to share, please don't hesitate to write: Click here to contact us.

This page was last modified/updated: 28 Mar 2025