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A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
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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 Ward Ridge (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 Ward Ridge. 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 Ward Ridge ...

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 Ward Ridge: Ward Rdg. (or less commonly used: Ward Rdge. or Ward Ridg.)

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 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.

Ward Ridge is located in Gulf 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 Gulf County: Bay, Calhoun, Franklin & Liberty.

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

  • Gulf County     (The home county of Ward Ridge)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Ward Ridge, with the one closest to Ward Ridge listed first.
    • Port Saint Joe
      (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
    • 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.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for White City
      • White City is located in Gulf County
    • Wewahitchka
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
  • Bay County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Ward Ridge, with the one closest to Ward Ridge listed first.
    • Mexico Beach
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Callaway
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Parker
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Parker have been provided by the GNIS.<2> 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
  • Franklin County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Ward Ridge, with the one closest to Ward Ridge listed first.
    • Bay City
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Bay City have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bay City
      • Bay City is located in Franklin County
    • Apalachicola
      (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
    • Eastpoint
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
  • Liberty County

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

Cemeteries Near Ward Ridge ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Ward Ridge.

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

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

  • Forest Hill Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Forest Hill Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Forest Hill Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Magnolia Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
  • Robertson Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Robertson Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Robertson Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Chestnut Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
  • Farmdale Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
  • Roberts Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Roberts Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Roberts Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Brown & Smith Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Brown & Smith Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Brown & Smith Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Williamsburg Cemetery
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Williamsburg Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Williamsburg Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Kemp Cemetery
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Kemp Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Kemp Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Wetappo Cemetery
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Wetappo Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Wetappo Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jehu Cemetery
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Jehu Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Jehu Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Eastpoint Cemetery
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
  • Porters Bar Cemetery
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Porters Bar Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Porters Bar Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Marywood Cemetery
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Marywood Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Marywood Cemetery 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.<4>

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

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

  • Apalachicola
    (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
  • Wewahitchka
    (22 miles [35.4 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 Ward Ridge. See our List of 1890's Communities around Ward Ridge.

Newspapers Published in Ward Ridge ...

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 Ward Ridge.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Ward Ridge, there are papers which were published within 22 miles [35.4 km]<5>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Ward Ridge.

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 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 Ward Ridge:

Unfortunately, we don't know of a website for Ward Ridge. 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: 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>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.
<4>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 Ward Ridge, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<5>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 drawn from Point A (ie- Ward Ridge) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Ward Ridge. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 29.7885, Longitude: -85.2849       In this case, the coordinates for Ward Ridge have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).




 

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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