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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 Palm Bay (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 Palm Bay. 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 southeast 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 south.

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 south 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.

Palm Bay is located in Brevard 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 Brevard County: Indian River, Orange, Osceola & Volusia.

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

  • Brevard County     (The home county of Palm Bay)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Palm Bay, with the one closest to Palm Bay listed first.
    • Melbourne
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • West Melbourne
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Melbourne Beach
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • June Park
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for June Park have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for June Park
      • June Park is located in Brevard County
    • Melbourne Village
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Melbourne Village have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Melbourne Village
      • Melbourne Village is located in Brevard County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 692 people
    • Malabar
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Indialantic
      (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Eau Gallie
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eau Gallie
      • Eau Gallie is located in Brevard County
    • Grant - Valkaria
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Indian Harbour Beach
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
    • Tropic
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
    • Grant
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Indian River County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Palm Bay, with the one closest to Palm Bay listed first.
    • Roseland
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Sebastian
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Fellsmere
      (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
    • North Beach
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for North Beach have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Beach
      • North Beach is located in Indian River County
    • Orchid
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Orchid have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Orchid
      • Orchid is located in Indian River County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 455 people
    • Wabasso
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Wabasso Beach
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Wabasso Beach have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wabasso Beach
      • Wabasso Beach is located in Indian River County
    • Winter Beach
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Indian River Shores
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Gifford
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Gifford have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gifford
      • Gifford is located in Indian River County
    • Vero Beach
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Osceola County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Palm Bay, with the one closest to Palm Bay listed first.
    • Kenansville
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Yeehaw Junction
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)

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

Newspapers Published in Palm Bay ...

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 29 newspapers that have been published in the area around Palm Bay.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Palm Bay, there are papers which were published within 24 miles [38.6 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Palm Bay.

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 Palm Bay:

Cemeteries Near Palm Bay ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Palm Bay.

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

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

  • Fountainhead Memorial Park
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
  • Grant Community Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Celia Padgett Cain Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Sebastian Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Sebastian Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Sebastian Cemetery
  • Old Sebastian Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Old Sebastian Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Old Sebastian Cemetery
  • Brevard Memorial Park
    (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Brevard Memorial Park have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Brevard Memorial Park
  • Florida Memorial Cemetery
    (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Florida Memorial Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Florida Memorial Cemetery
  • Pine Crest Cemetery
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Pine Crest Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Pine Crest Cemetery
  • Williams Cemetery
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
  • Bethel Cemetery
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Bethel Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Bethel Cemetery
  • St. Luke's Parish Episcopal Church Cemetery
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Luke's Parish Episcopal Church Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Luke's Parish Episcopal Church Cemetery

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

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

  • Melbourne
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
  • Malabar
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
  • Valkaria
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Valkaria have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Valkaria
    • Valkaria is located in Brevard County
  • Eau Gallie
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eau Gallie
    • Eau Gallie is located in Brevard County
  • Tropic
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
  • Micco
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
  • Georgiana
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Georgiana have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Georgiana
    • Georgiana is located in Brevard County
  • Sebastian
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
  • Rockledge
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
  • Cocoa
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cocoa
    • Cocoa is located in Brevard County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 18,694 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Cocoa <1>
  • Indianola
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Indianola have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Indianola
    • Indianola is located in Brevard County
  • City Point
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for City Point have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for City Point
    • City Point is located in Brevard County
  • Sharpes
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)

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

The official website for Palm Bay: www.palmbayflorida.org/

The official website for Brevard County: www.brevardcounty.us/

The official website for State of Florida: 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>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Palm Bay) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Palm Bay. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 28.0353, Longitude: -80.6218    
<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 Palm Bay, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024