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 Johnsons Bayou (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 Johnsons Bayou. 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 Johnsons Bayou ...
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.
While the name of this community is Johnsons Bayou, be aware that it's the common practice of mapmakers to remove the apostrophe from possessive names<1>. So Johnsons Bayou may originally have been Johnson's Bayou.
Sometimes the trailing 's' might be dropped altogether, in which case Johnsons Bayou might be written as Johnson Bayou.
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 Parishes/Counties ...
When searching for family records, we have frequently made the mistake of not checking the neighboring parishes/counties.
For example, we have great-grandparents who lived in the northeast corner of their home parish. During their lives, most doctors and hospitals were in the next parish to the east. Almost all of the nearby churches and cemeteries were in the parish to the north.
So when searching for records, we had our best success by looking in neighboring parishes/counties instead of the parish in which they lived: their home parish contained property and probate records; the parish to the east contained birth and death records; the parish to the north contained their burial records. If we hadn't included the neighboring parishes/counties, we would have missed many valuable sources of information.
If you're in a similar situation, we hope that the following information helps.
Johnsons Bayou is located in Cameron Parish.
To see how the shape of Louisiana's parishes may have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.
The following parishes adjoin and form the boundaries of Cameron Parish: Calcasieu, Jefferson Davis, Vermilion, Jefferson (TX) & Orange (TX).
Below are the parishes/counties that are near Johnsons Bayou. For each of these parishes/counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Johnsons Bayou:
- Cameron Parish (The home parish of Johnsons Bayou)
- The following are listed by their distance from Johnsons Bayou, with the one closest to Johnsons Bayou listed first.
- Cameron
(20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
- Hackberry
(24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
- Grand Lake
(29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
- Grand Lake is located in Cameron Parish
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grand Lake
- Calcasieu Parish
- Vinton
(30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
- Jefferson County (TX)
- The following are listed by their distance from Johnsons Bayou, with the one closest to Johnsons Bayou listed first.
- Sabine Pass
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
- Port Arthur
(18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
- Groves
(20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
- Groves is located in Jefferson County (TX)
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Groves
- Population from the 2020 Census: 15,268 people
- Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Groves <2>
- Port Neches
(22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
- Port Acres
(24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
- Nederland
(25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
- Central Gardens
(26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
- Central Gardens is located in Jefferson County (TX)
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Central Gardens
- Taylor Landing
(29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
- Taylor Landing is located in Jefferson County (TX)
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Taylor Landing
- Population from the 2020 Census: 237 people
- Orange County (TX)
- The following are listed by their distance from Johnsons Bayou, with the one closest to Johnsons Bayou listed first.
- Bridge City
(21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
- West Orange
(22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
- Orange
(23 miles [37 km] to the north)
- Pinehurst
(24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
- Pinehurst is located in Orange County (TX)
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pinehurst
- Population from the 2020 Census: 1,959 people
- Orangefield
(24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
- Terry
(28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
- Terry is located in Orange County (TX)
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Terry
For an expanded list of the communities that are closest to Johnsons Bayou, see our Parish-by-Parish Page for Johnsons Bayou.
Cemeteries Near Johnsons Bayou ...
Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Johnsons Bayou.
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 Johnsons Bayou - one of the links might be able to help.
If not found below, our Cemetery List for Johnsons Bayou covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.
The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Johnsons Bayou, with the one closest to Johnsons Bayou listed first.
- Head of the Hollow Cemetery
(Less than 2 miles to the west)
- Pevoto Cemetery
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
- Peveto Cemetery
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
- Smith Ridge Cemetery
(5 miles [8 km] to the west)
- Sabine Pass Cemetery
(15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sabine Pass Cemetery
- To give a relative sense of its location, the Sabine Pass Cemetery is located outside and to the southwest of Sabine Pass (TX).
- The Sabine Pass Cemetery has also been known as:
- Pace Cemetery
- Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2168432 <3>
- McGaffey Cemetery
(16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
- Calvary Cemetery
(19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
- Wakefield Memorial Cemetery
(20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
- Johnson Memorial Park
(20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Johnson Memorial Park
- To give a relative sense of its location, the Johnson Memorial Park is a large cemetery that is located in Groves (TX).
- The Johnson Memorial Park has also been known as:
- Johnson Cemetery
- Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #1987385 <3>
- Greenlawn Memorial Park
(20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
- Kelly - Rogers Cemetery
(21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
- Our Lady Cemetery
(21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
- Continue List (31 more) ...
- Evergreen Cemetery
(22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
- Forest Lawn Memorial Park
(22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
- Hillcrest Memorial Gardens
(22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
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>
The Rand McNally Atlas shows that in 1895, Johnsons Bayou had a post office and no railroad service.
These communities are listed based on their distance from Johnsons Bayou, with the one closest to Johnsons Bayou listed first.
- Sabine Pass
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
- Cameron
(20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
- Orange
(23 miles [37 km] to the north)
- Hackberry
(24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
- Tulane
(25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
- Tulane is located in Orange County (TX)
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tulane
- Echo
(27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
- Echo is located in Orange County (TX)
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Echo
- Terry
(28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
- Terry is located in Orange County (TX)
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Terry
- Grand Lake
(29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
- Grand Lake is located in Cameron Parish
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grand Lake
We've also created an expanded list of communities that existed in the 1890's and were located in the area around Johnsons Bayou. See our List of 1890's Communities around Johnsons Bayou.
Newspapers Published in Johnsons Bayou ...
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 30 newspapers that have been published in the area around Johnsons Bayou.
Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Johnsons Bayou, there are papers which were published within 25 miles [40.2 km]<5>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Johnsons Bayou.
Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...
When we do our genealogical research, we first visit 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 Johnsons Bayou:
- Websites specific to Louisiana
- Pages specific to Cameron Parish
- Genealogy information for nearby parishes
- Calcasieu Parish
- Jefferson County
- Orange County
- Cemetery Information and Directories for Louisiana
Footnotes ...
| <1> | It's generally believed that possessive apostrophes are removed to prevent confusion on maps where the apostrophe may be confused with a cartographic symbol. While this is generally true, it's not uncommon to find possessive apostrophes in administrative names (such as towns or counties). |
| <2> | While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program. |
| <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 Johnsons Bayou, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy. |
| <5> | 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 drawn from Point A (ie- Johnsons Bayou) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'. |