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The Commemorative Quarter for Florida





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 Port Saint Joe (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 Port Saint Joe. 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 Port Saint Joe ...

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 Port Saint Joe: Prt. St. Joe

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 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.

Port Saint Joe is located in Gulf County and is the County Seat.

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 Gulf County: Bay, Calhoun, Franklin & Liberty.

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

  • Gulf County     (The home county of Port Saint Joe)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Port Saint Joe, with the one closest to Port Saint Joe listed first.
    • White City
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for White City have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for White City
      • White City is located in Gulf County
    • Wewahitchka
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
  • Bay County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Port Saint Joe, with the one closest to Port Saint Joe listed first.
    • Mexico Beach
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Callaway
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Parker
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Parker have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Parker
      • Parker is located in Bay County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 4,109 people
    • Bay Harbor ‑ Historic
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Bay Harbor have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bay Harbor
      • Bay Harbor is located in Bay County
    • Springfield
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Franklin County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Port Saint Joe, with the one closest to Port Saint Joe listed first.
    • Bay City
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Bay City have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bay City
      • Bay City is located in Franklin County
    • Apalachicola
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
    • Eastpoint
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
  • Liberty County

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Port Saint Joe ...

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 15 newspapers that have been published in the area around Port Saint Joe.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Port Saint Joe. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Port Saint Joe and those printed in the larger area surrounding Port Saint Joe.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 21 miles [33.8 km]<3> of Port Saint Joe.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we like to start 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 Port Saint Joe:

Cemeteries Near Port Saint Joe ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Port Saint Joe.

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 Port Saint Joe covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

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

  • Forest Hill Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Forest Hill Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Forest Hill Cemetery
  • Robertson Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Robertson Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Robertson Cemetery
  • Farmdale Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Magnolia Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
  • Roberts Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Roberts Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Roberts Cemetery
  • Chestnut Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
  • Brown & Smith Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Brown & Smith Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Brown & Smith Cemetery
  • Williamsburg Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Williamsburg Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Williamsburg Cemetery
  • Jehu Cemetery
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Jehu Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Jehu Cemetery
  • Continue List   (6 more) ...
    • Kemp Cemetery
      (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Kemp Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Kemp Cemetery
    • Wetappo Cemetery
      (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Wetappo Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Wetappo Cemetery
    • Eastpoint Cemetery
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
    • Porters Bar Cemetery
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Porters Bar Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Porters Bar Cemetery
    • Marywood Cemetery
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Marywood Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Marywood 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 Port Saint Joe in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Port Saint Joe.

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

  • Apalachicola
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
  • Wewahitchka
    (21 miles [33.8 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 Port Saint Joe. See our List of 1890's Communities around Port Saint Joe.

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

The official website for Gulf County: www.gulfcountygovernment.com/

The official website for State of Florida: www.myflorida.com/

Footnotes ...

<1>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.
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<3>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or 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- Port Saint Joe) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Port Saint Joe. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 29.8118, Longitude: -85.3034    
<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 Port Saint Joe, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024