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A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
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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 Vineyards (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 Vineyards. 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 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.

Vineyards is located in Collier 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 Collier County: Broward, Hendry, Lee, Miami-Dade & Monroe.

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

  • Collier County     (The home county of Vineyards)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Vineyards, with the one closest to Vineyards listed first.
    • Golden Gate
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
    • North Naples
      (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
      • North Naples is located in Collier County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Naples
    • Pelican Bay
      (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Pine Ridge
      (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
      • Pine Ridge is located in Collier County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pine Ridge
    • Naples Park
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • East Naples
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
      • East Naples is located in Collier County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for East Naples
    • Naples
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Vanderbilt Beach
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Orangetree
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
      • Orangetree is located in Collier County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Orangetree
    • Lely
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
      • Lely is located in Collier County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lely
    • Naples Manor
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
      • Naples Manor is located in Collier County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Naples Manor
    • Barefoot Beach
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
      • Barefoot Beach is located in Collier County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Barefoot Beach
    • Lely Resort
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
      • Lely Resort is located in Collier County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lely Resort
  • Hendry County
  • Lee County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Vineyards, with the one closest to Vineyards listed first.
    • Bonita Springs
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Estero
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
    • San Carlos Park
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
      • San Carlos Park is located in Lee County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for San Carlos Park
    • Three Oaks
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
      • Three Oaks is located in Lee County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Three Oaks
    • Forest Island Park
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
      • Forest Island Park is located in Lee County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Forest Island Park
    • Fort Myers Beach
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Biggar
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
    • Gateway
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
      • Gateway is located in Lee County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gateway
    • Cypress Lake
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
      • Cypress Lake is located in Lee County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cypress Lake
    • Harlem Heights
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
      • Harlem Heights is located in Lee County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harlem Heights
    • Truckland ‑ Historic
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
      • Truckland is located in Lee County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Truckland
    • Villas
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
      • Villas is located in Lee County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Villas
    • Iona
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
      • Iona is located in Lee County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Iona

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

Cemeteries Near Vineyards ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Vineyards.

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 Vineyards - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

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

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

  • Naples
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
  • Punta Rassa
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Punta Rassa is located in Lee County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Punta Rassa
  • Sanibel
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
  • Saint James City
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)

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

Newspapers Published in Vineyards ...

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 32 newspapers that have been published in the area around Vineyards.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Vineyards, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Vineyards.

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 Vineyards:

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 Vineyards, 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- Vineyards) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.