RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Florida >> Miami-Dade County >> Surfside >> Genealogy HelperIndex...










Learn About
The Commemorative
Quarter for
Florida

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 Surfside (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 Surfside. 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 and doctors 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.

Surfside is located in Miami-Dade 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 Miami-Dade County: Broward, Collier & Monroe.

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

  • Miami-Dade County     (The home county of Surfside)
  • Broward County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Surfside, with the one closest to Surfside listed first.
    • Hallandale Beach
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • Hallandale
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Hallandale came from an uncertain source and they still need to be verified:<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hallandale
      • Hallandale is located in Broward County
    • Lake Forest
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Lake Forest have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lake Forest
      • Lake Forest is located in Broward County
    • West Park
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for West Park have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West Park
      • West Park is located in Broward County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 15,038 people
    • Carver Ranches
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Carver Ranches have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Carver Ranches
      • Carver Ranches is located in Broward County
    • Miami Gardens
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Pembroke Park
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Hollywood
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
    • Utopia
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Utopia have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Utopia
      • Utopia is located in Broward County
    • West Hollywood
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Dania Beach
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
    • Dania
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Dania came from an uncertain source and they still need to be verified:<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dania
      • Dania is located in Broward County

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

Cemeteries Near Surfside ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Surfside.

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

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

  • Southern Memorial Park
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Southern Memorial Park
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Southern Memorial Park
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Southern Memorial Park have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Mt. Sinai Memorial Park
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Mt. Sinai Memorial Park
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Mt. Sinai Memorial Park have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Dade Memorial Park
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Dade Memorial Park
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Dade Memorial Park have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Mt. Sinai Memorial Park
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Mt. Sinai Memorial Park
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Mt. Sinai Memorial Park have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Miami Shores Memorial Park
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Miami Shores Memorial Park
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Miami Shores Memorial Park have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Miami City Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
  • City Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the City Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the City Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Lincoln Memorial Park
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Lincoln Memorial Park
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Lincoln Memorial Park have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Lincoln Evergreen Memorial Park
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Lincoln Evergreen Memorial Park
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Lincoln Evergreen Memorial Park have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Evergreen Memorial Park
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Vista Memorial Gardens
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Vista Memorial Gardens
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Vista Memorial Gardens have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Continue List   (33 more) ...
    • Graceland Memorial Park
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Graceland Memorial Park
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Graceland Memorial Park have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Woodlawn Park Cemetery
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Woodlawn Park Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Woodlawn Park Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Hollywood Memorial Gardens
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Hollywood Memorial Gardens
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Hollywood Memorial Gardens have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.

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.<6>

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

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

  • Miami
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Cutler
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Cutler have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cutler
    • Cutler is located in Miami-Dade County

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

Newspapers Published in Surfside ...

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 277 newspapers that have been published in the area around Surfside.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Surfside, there are papers which were published within 15 miles [24.1 km]<5>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Surfside.

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 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 Surfside:

The official website for Surfside: www.town.surfside.fl.us/

The official website for Miami-Dade County: www.miamidade.gov/

The official website for State of Florida: https://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>If we found a location and have questions about the accuracy of our information, we will simply say that the marker is 'in the vicinity'. We are not confident about the location and the position of our marker is only a rough guide. If we have too many doubts about the location, we will not include it in our database.
<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>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- Surfside) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Surfside. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 25.8779, Longitude: -80.1245    
<6>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 Surfside, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

Copyright 2025
All Rights Reserved

Thank you for visiting our website.

In closing, please keep in mind that we can not guarantee the accuracy or timeliness of the information on this website, so use with care. We encourage you to double-check the information that is critical to you.

If you've found an error or have additional information that you would like to share, please don't hesitate to write: Click here to contact us.

This page was last modified/updated: 28 Mar 2025