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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 Sunshine (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 Sunshine. 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 Parishes ...

When searching for family records, we have frequently made the mistake of not checking the neighboring parishes.

For example, we have great-grandparents who lived in the southeast corner of their home parish. During their lives, most hospitals were in the next parish to the east. Almost all of the nearby churches and cemeteries were in the parish to the south.

So when searching for records, we had our best success by looking in neighboring parishes 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 south contained their burial records. If we hadn't included the neighboring parishes, we would have missed many valuable sources of information.

If you're in a similar situation, we hope that the following information helps.

Sunshine is located in Iberville 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 Iberville Parish: Ascension, Assumption, East Baton Rouge, Iberia, Pointe Coupee, Saint Martin & West Baton Rouge.

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

  • Iberville Parish     (The home parish of Sunshine)
  • Ascension Parish
    • The following are listed by their distance from Sunshine, with the one closest to Sunshine listed first.
    • Southwood
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Southwood is located in Ascension Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Southwood
    • Bullion
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
      • Bullion is located in Ascension Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bullion
    • Dutch Town
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
    • Geismar
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Cornerview
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
      • Cornerview is located in Ascension Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cornerview
    • Oak Grove
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
      • Oak Grove is located in Ascension Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oak Grove
    • Prairieville
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
    • Hope Villa
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
      • Hope Villa is located in Ascension Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hope Villa
    • Duplessis
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
    • Hobart
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
      • Hobart is located in Ascension Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hobart
    • Gonzales
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
    • Little Prairie
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
      • Little Prairie is located in Ascension Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Little Prairie
  • Assumption Parish
  • East Baton Rouge Parish
    • The following are listed by their distance from Sunshine, with the one closest to Sunshine listed first.
    • Burtville ‑ Historic
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Gardere
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
      • Gardere is located in East Baton Rouge Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gardere
    • Oak Hills Place
      (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
      • Oak Hills Place is located in East Baton Rouge Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oak Hills Place
    • Lynwood Village
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
      • Lynwood Village is located in East Baton Rouge Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lynwood Village
    • Perkins Village
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Perkins Village is located in East Baton Rouge Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Perkins Village
    • Village Saint George
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Village Saint George is located in East Baton Rouge Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Village Saint George
    • Essen
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • Inniswold
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
    • Westminster
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
      • Westminster is located in East Baton Rouge Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Westminster
    • Old Jefferson
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
      • Old Jefferson is located in East Baton Rouge Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Old Jefferson
    • Shenandoah
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Shenandoah is located in East Baton Rouge Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shenandoah
    • Baton Rouge
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
  • East Feliciana Parish
    • The following are listed by their distance from Sunshine, with the one closest to Sunshine listed first.
    • Slaughter
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
    • Lindsay
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
  • Livingston Parish
  • Pointe Coupee Parish
  • Saint James Parish
  • Saint Martin Parish
  • West Baton Rouge Parish

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

Cemeteries Near Sunshine ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Sunshine.

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

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Sunshine, with the one closest to Sunshine 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>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that in 1895, Sunshine had a post office and no railroad service.

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

  • Saint Gabriel
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
  • Gardere
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Gardere is located in East Baton Rouge Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gardere
  • Bayou Goula
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
  • Southwood
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Southwood is located in Ascension Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Southwood
  • Dorcyville
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Dorcyville is located in Iberville Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dorcyville
  • Hohen Solms
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Hohen Solms is located in Ascension Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hohen Solms
  • Plaquemine
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
  • Geismar
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
  • Dutch Town
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
  • Hopeville ‑ Historic
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Hopeville is located in East Baton Rouge Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hopeville
  • Brusly Landing
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Brusly Landing is located in West Baton Rouge Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brusly Landing
  • Belle Helene
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Belle Helene is located in Ascension Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Belle Helene
  • Continue List   (14 more) ...
    • Baton Rouge
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
    • McCall
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
      • McCall is located in Ascension Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for McCall
    • Gonzales
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)

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

Newspapers Published in Sunshine ...

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 27 newspapers that have been published in the area around Sunshine.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Sunshine, there are papers which were published within 8 miles [12.9 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Sunshine.

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 professional and volunteer 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 Sunshine:

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 Sunshine, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<4>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Sunshine) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.