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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 Pine Island Center (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 Pine Island Center. 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 Pine Island Center ...

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.

For example, a typical abbreviation for Pine Island Center: Pine Is. Ctr. (or less commonly used: Pine Is. Cen., Pine Is. Cent. or Pine Is. Cntr.)

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 southeast 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 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.

Pine Island Center is located in Lee 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 Lee County: Charlotte, Collier, Glades & Hendry.

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

  • Lee County     (The home county of Pine Island Center)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Pine Island Center, with the one closest to Pine Island Center listed first.
    • Matlacha
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Matlacha Isles - Matlacha Shores
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Pineland
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Flamingo Bay
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
      • Flamingo Bay is located in Lee County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Flamingo Bay
    • Bokeelia
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Pineland
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
      • Pineland is located in Lee County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pineland
    • Captiva
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Captiva is located in Lee County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Captiva
    • Cayo Costa
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Saint James City
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
    • Shell Point Village
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Shell Point Village is located in Lee County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shell Point Village
    • Cape Coral
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
    • Punta Rassa
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Punta Rassa is located in Lee County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Punta Rassa
    • Burnt Store Marina
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
      • Burnt Store Marina is located in Lee County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Burnt Store Marina
  • Charlotte County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Pine Island Center, with the one closest to Pine Island Center listed first.
    • Placida
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Cape Haze
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Charlotte Park
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
      • Charlotte Park is located in Charlotte County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Charlotte Park
    • Rotonda West
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Fishermens Village
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
      • Fishermens Village is located in Charlotte County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fishermens Village
    • Punta Gorda
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
    • Solana
      (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
      • Solana is located in Charlotte County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Solana
    • Charlotte Harbor
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
    • Grove City
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Cleveland
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
      • Cleveland is located in Charlotte County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cleveland
    • El Jobean
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
    • Harbor View
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
      • Harbor View is located in Charlotte County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harbor View
    • Port Charlotte
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
  • Collier County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Pine Island Center, with the one closest to Pine Island Center listed first.
    • Barefoot Beach
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
      • Barefoot Beach is located in Collier County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Barefoot Beach
    • Naples Park
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Vanderbilt Beach
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Sarasota County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Pine Island Center, with the one closest to Pine Island Center listed first.
    • Englewood
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
    • North Port
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)

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

Cemeteries Near Pine Island Center ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Pine Island Center.

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 Pine Island Center - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • Coral Ridge Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
  • Captiva Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Captiva Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Captiva Cemetery is located in Captiva.
    • The Captiva Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Chapel by the Sea Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #1961480 <2>
  • Sanibel Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
  • Coral Ridge Gardens
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
  • Ft. Myers Memorial Gardens
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
  • Prospect Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
  • Calvary Gardens
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
  • Frierson - Hendry Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
  • Hendry Frierson Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
  • Oak Ridge Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
  • Woodlawn Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
  • Ft. Myers Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
  • Continue List   (14 more) ...
    • Indian Springs Cemetery
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
    • Royal Palm Memorial Gardens
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
    • Koreshan Cemetery #2
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)

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.<3>

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

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

  • Saint James City
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
  • Punta Rassa
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Punta Rassa is located in Lee County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Punta Rassa
  • Sanibel
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Punta Gorda
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
  • Buckingham
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
    • Buckingham is located in Lee County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Buckingham
  • Grove City
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
  • Charlotte Harbor
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
  • Cleveland
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
    • Cleveland is located in Charlotte County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cleveland
  • Harbor View
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
    • Harbor View is located in Charlotte County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harbor View

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

Newspapers Published in Pine Island Center ...

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 42 newspapers that have been published in the area around Pine Island Center.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Pine Island Center, there are papers which were published within 27 miles [43.5 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Pine Island Center.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we start 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 Pine Island Center:

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 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.
<3>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 Pine Island Center, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<4>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- Pine Island Center) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.