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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 Neilson (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 Neilson. 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 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.

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

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

  • Polk County     (The home county of Neilson)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Neilson, with the one closest to Neilson listed first.
    • Pittsburg
      (Less than 2 miles to the south)
      • Pittsburg is located in Polk County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pittsburg
    • Frostproof
      (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Babson Park
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
    • Hillcrest Heights
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
      • Hillcrest Heights is located in Polk County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hillcrest Heights
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 305 people
    • Crooked Lake Park
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Crooked Lake Park is located in Polk County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crooked Lake Park
    • Indian Lake Estates
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Highland Park
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
      • Highland Park is located in Polk County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Highland Park
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 221 people
    • Nalcrest
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
    • Lakeshore
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Lake Wales
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
    • Alturas
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
    • Cacema Town ‑ Historic
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
      • Cacema Town is located in Polk County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cacema Town
    • Fort Meade
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
  • DeSoto County
    • Calvinia ‑ Historic
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Calvinia is located in DeSoto County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Calvinia
  • Hardee County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Neilson, with the one closest to Neilson listed first.
    • Crewsville
      (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
      • Crewsville is located in Hardee County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crewsville
    • Bowling Green
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
    • Wauchula
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Zolfo Springs
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Ona
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
  • Highlands County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Neilson, with the one closest to Neilson listed first.
    • Alpine
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
      • Alpine is located in Highlands County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Alpine
    • Avon Park
      (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Sebring
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
    • De Soto City
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
      • De Soto City is located in Highlands County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for De Soto City
    • Lorida
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Sylvan Shores
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
      • Sylvan Shores is located in Highlands County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sylvan Shores
    • Lake Placid
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
    • Placid Lakes
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
      • Placid Lakes is located in Highlands County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Placid Lakes

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

Cemeteries Near Neilson ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Neilson.

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 Neilson - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • Silver Hill Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Silver Hill Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Silver Hill Cemetery is located 2 miles [3.2 km]<2> to the south of Frostproof.
    • The Silver Hill Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Silver Lake Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #72619 <3>
  • Bougainvillea Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
  • Biscuit Lake Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
  • Corinth Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Corinth Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Corinth Cemetery is located 7 miles [11.3 km]<2> to the northwest of Avon Park.
    • The Corinth Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Bereah Cemetery
    • Corinth Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2242863 <3>
  • Eden Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eden Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Eden Cemetery is located 6 miles [9.7 km]<2> to the west of Frostproof.
    • The Eden Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Little Eden Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #71928 <3>
  • Lakeview Memorial Gardens
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lakeview Memorial Gardens
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Lakeview Memorial Gardens is located 3 miles [4.8 km]<2> to the south of Avon Park.
  • Mt. Zion Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
  • Hart Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Lakeside Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Pinecrest Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Lake Buffum Baptist Church Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
  • Prescott Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
  • Continue List   (38 more) ...
    • Garden Cemetery
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Lake Wales Cemetery
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Pleasant Grove 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.<4>

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

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

  • Avon Park
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
  • Crewsville
    (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
    • Crewsville is located in Hardee County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crewsville
  • Fort Meade
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
  • Bowling Green
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
  • Wauchula
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Zolfo Springs
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Homeland
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
  • Wahneta
    (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
    • Wahneta is located in Polk County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wahneta
  • Eagle Lake
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
  • Bartow
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
  • Gordonville
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Gordonville is located in Polk County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gordonville
  • Winter Haven
    (27 miles [43.5 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 Neilson. See our List of 1890's Communities around Neilson.

Newspapers Published in Neilson ...

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 45 newspapers that have been published in the area around Neilson.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Neilson, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<2>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Neilson.

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 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 Neilson:

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