Our Genealogy HelperIntroduction ...We have a couple of goals for our Gazetteer:
By learning about West Point (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 West Point. 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 West Point ...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 West Point: W. Point You might be interested in other communities that are also named West Point. More information can be found on our Tidbits & Trivia Page for West Point. 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 ...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 northwest corner of their home parish. During their lives, most hospitals and doctors were in the next parish to the west. 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 instead of the parish in which they lived: their home parish contained property and probate records; the parish to the west contained birth and death records; the parish to the north 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. West Point is located in Plaquemines 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 Plaquemines Parish: Jefferson, Orleans & Saint Bernard. Below are the parishes that are near West Point. For each of these parishes, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to West Point:
For an expanded list of the communities that are closest to West Point, see our Parish-by-Parish Page for West Point. Cemeteries Near West Point ...Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of West Point. 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 West Point - one of the links might be able to help. If not found below, our Cemetery List for West Point covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order. The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from West Point, with the one closest to West Point 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.<2> While we didn't find West Point in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of West Point. These communities are listed based on their distance from West Point, with the one closest to West Point listed first.
We've also created an expanded list of communities that existed in the 1890's and were located in the area around West Point. See our List of 1890's Communities around West Point. 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 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 West Point:
Footnotes ...
|