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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 Sweet Lake (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 Sweet Lake. 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 Sweet Lake ...

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.

For example, a typical abbreviation for Sweet Lake: Sweet Lk.

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 southeast 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 south.

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 south 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.

Sweet Lake 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 Sweet Lake. For each of these parishes/counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Sweet Lake:

  • Cameron Parish     (The home parish of Sweet Lake)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Sweet Lake, with the one closest to Sweet Lake listed first.
    • Grand Lake
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
      • Grand Lake is located in Cameron Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grand Lake
    • Creole
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
      • Creole is located in Cameron Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Creole
    • Hackberry
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
    • Grand Chenier
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Cameron
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Calcasieu Parish
    • The following are listed by their distance from Sweet Lake, with the one closest to Sweet Lake listed first.
    • Bell City
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Greinwich Village
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
      • Greinwich Village is located in Calcasieu Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Greinwich Village
    • Hayes
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Lake Charles
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
    • Prien
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Prien is located in Calcasieu Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Prien
    • Iowa
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
      • Iowa is located in Calcasieu Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Iowa
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 3,109 people
    • Carlyss
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
      • Carlyss is located in Calcasieu Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Carlyss
    • Westlake
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Ararat
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
      • Ararat is located in Calcasieu Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ararat
    • Moss Bluff
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
    • Sulphur
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Edgerly
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
      • Edgerly is located in Calcasieu Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Edgerly
    • Vinton
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Vinton is located in Calcasieu Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Vinton
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 3,211 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Vinton <1>
  • Jefferson Davis Parish
    • The following are listed by their distance from Sweet Lake, with the one closest to Sweet Lake listed first.
    • Lacassine
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Welsh
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Welsh is located in Jefferson Davis Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Welsh
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 3,195 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Welsh <1>
    • Lake Arthur
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
    • Roanoke
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Fenton
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Fenton is located in Jefferson Davis Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fenton
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 349 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Fenton <1>

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

Cemeteries Near Sweet Lake ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Sweet Lake.

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 Sweet Lake - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • Granger Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
  • Grand Lake Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grand Lake Cemetery
    • The Grand Lake Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Big Lake Cemetery
    • Grand Lake Community Cemetery
    • Hebert Cemetery
    • Herbert Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #67747 <2>
  • Pujol Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
  • Duhon Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
  • Sacred Heart Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
  • La Bove Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
  • Highland Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Benoit Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Little Chenier Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
  • First Baptist Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Consolata Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Prien Memorial Park
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Continue List   (33 more) ...
    • Burleson Cemetery
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Dutch Cove Cemetery
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Our Lady Cemetery
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)

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

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

  • Grand Lake
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
    • Grand Lake is located in Cameron Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grand Lake
  • Hackberry
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
  • Lake Charles
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
  • Cameron
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Grand Chenier
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
  • Chloe
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
    • Chloe is located in Calcasieu Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chloe
  • Iowa
    (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
    • Iowa is located in Calcasieu Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Iowa
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 3,109 people
  • Westlake
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
  • Edgerly
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Edgerly is located in Calcasieu Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Edgerly

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

Newspapers Published in Sweet Lake ...

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 39 newspapers that have been published in the area around Sweet Lake.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Sweet Lake, there are papers which were published within 22 miles [35.4 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Sweet Lake.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we begin with the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These helpful 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 Sweet Lake:

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