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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 Santa Rosa Beach (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 Santa Rosa Beach. 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 Santa Rosa Beach ...

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 Santa Rosa Beach: Santa Rosa Bch.

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 northwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors were in the next county to the west. 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 west 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.

Santa Rosa Beach is located in Walton 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 Walton County: Covington (AL), Geneva (AL), Bay, Holmes, Okaloosa & Washington.

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

  • Walton County     (The home county of Santa Rosa Beach)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Santa Rosa Beach, with the one closest to Santa Rosa Beach listed first.
    • Blue Mountain Beach
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Four Mile Village
      (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Four Mile Village have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Four Mile Village
      • Four Mile Village is located in Walton County
    • The Village of Baytowne Wharf
      (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for The Village of Baytowne Wharf have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for The Village of Baytowne Wharf
      • The Village of Baytowne Wharf is located in Walton County
    • Point Washington
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Grayton Beach
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Sandestin
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Seaside
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Miramar Beach
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Freeport
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Seagrove Beach
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Alys Beach
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Rosemary Beach
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Bay County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Santa Rosa Beach, with the one closest to Santa Rosa Beach listed first.
    • Sunnyside
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Laguna Beach
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Panama City Beach
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
    • West Panama City Beach
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for West Panama City Beach have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West Panama City Beach
      • West Panama City Beach is located in Bay County
  • Holmes County
    • Ponce de Leon
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Okaloosa County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Santa Rosa Beach, with the one closest to Santa Rosa Beach listed first.
    • Destin
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Destin
      • Destin is located in Okaloosa County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 14,284 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Destin <1>
    • Niceville
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Valparaiso
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Eglin Village
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Eglin Village have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eglin Village
      • Eglin Village is located in Okaloosa County
    • Lake Lorraine
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Lake Lorraine have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lake Lorraine
      • Lake Lorraine is located in Okaloosa County
    • Shalimar
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
    • Cinco Bayou
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Cinco Bayou have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cinco Bayou
      • Cinco Bayou is located in Okaloosa County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 447 people
    • Fort Walton Beach
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
    • Ocean City
      (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Ocean City have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ocean City
      • Ocean City is located in Okaloosa County
    • Wright
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Wright have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wright
      • Wright is located in Okaloosa County
    • Mary Esther
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
    • Hurlburt Field
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
  • Washington County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Santa Rosa Beach, with the one closest to Santa Rosa Beach listed first.
    • Ebro
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ebro
      • Ebro is located in Washington County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 285 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Ebro <1>
    • Coosada Old Town ‑ Historic
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Coosada Old Town have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Coosada Old Town
      • Coosada Old Town is located in Washington County
    • Millers Ferry
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Millers Ferry have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Millers Ferry
      • Millers Ferry is located in Washington County

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

Newspapers Published in Santa Rosa Beach ...

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 20 newspapers that have been published in the area around Santa Rosa Beach.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Santa Rosa Beach, there are papers which were published within 23 miles [37 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Santa Rosa Beach.

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 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 Santa Rosa Beach:

Cemeteries Near Santa Rosa Beach ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Santa Rosa Beach.

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 Santa Rosa Beach covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

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

  • Santa Rosa Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Santa Rosa Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Santa Rosa Cemetery
  • Brown Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Brown Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Brown Cemetery
  • Black Oak Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Black Oak Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Black Oak Cemetery
  • Hatcher Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Hatcher Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Hatcher Cemetery
  • Hewas Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Hewas Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Hewas Cemetery
  • New Home Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the New Home Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the New Home Cemetery
  • Antioch Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Antioch Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Antioch Cemetery
  • Rocky Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Rocky Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Rocky Cemetery
  • Early Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Sunset Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
  • Sweeney Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Sweeney Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Sweeney Cemetery
  • Dead River Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Dead River Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Dead River Cemetery
  • Continue List   (15 more) ...
    • Ebro Cemetery
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Ebro Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Ebro Cemetery
    • Redbay Cemetery
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Redbay Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Redbay Cemetery
    • Oak Ridge Cemetery
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Oak Ridge Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Oak Ridge 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 Santa Rosa Beach in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Santa Rosa Beach.

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

  • Freeport
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
  • Portland
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Portland have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Portland
    • Portland is located in Walton County
  • Eucheeanna
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Eucheeanna have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eucheeanna
    • Eucheeanna is located in Walton County
  • Redbay
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Redbay have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Redbay
    • Redbay is located in Walton County
  • Knox Hill
    (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Knox Hill
    • Knox Hill is located in Walton County
  • Mossy Head
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
  • Argyle
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
  • Millers Ferry
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Millers Ferry have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Millers Ferry
    • Millers Ferry is located in Washington County
  • Ponce de Leon
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)

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

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

The official website for Walton County: www.co.walton.fl.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 '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- Santa Rosa Beach) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Santa Rosa Beach. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 30.3961, Longitude: -86.2286    
<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 Santa Rosa Beach, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024