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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 Barnstable (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 Barnstable. 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 Barnstable ...

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 occur.

Barnstable has also been known as: Barnstable Village.

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 northwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals were in the next county to the west. 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 west 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.

Barnstable is located in Barnstable County and is the County Seat.

To see how the shape of Massachusetts' counties may have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

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

  • Barnstable County     (The home county of Barnstable)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Barnstable, with the one closest to Barnstable listed first.
    • Cobbs Village
      (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
      • Cobbs Village is located in Barnstable County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cobbs Village
    • Cummaquid ‑ Historic
      (Less than 2 miles to the east)
      • Cummaquid is located in Barnstable County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cummaquid
    • Yarmouth Port
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
      • Yarmouth Port is located in Barnstable County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Yarmouth Port
    • Yarmouth Station
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
      • Yarmouth Station is located in Barnstable County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Yarmouth Station
    • Yarmouth
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Hyannis
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • Centerville
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Barnstable Town
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
      • Barnstable Town is located in Barnstable County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Barnstable Town
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 44,535 people
    • West Barnstable
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
    • Hyannis Port
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • West Hyannisport
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
      • West Hyannisport is located in Barnstable County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West Hyannisport
    • Craigville
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
      • Craigville is located in Barnstable County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Craigville
  • Bristol County
  • Dukes County
  • Nantucket County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Barnstable, with the one closest to Barnstable listed first.
    • Nantucket
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
    • Pocomo
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Plymouth County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Barnstable, with the one closest to Barnstable listed first.
    • Onset
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
    • White Island Shores
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
      • White Island Shores is located in Plymouth County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for White Island Shores
    • East Wareham
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
      • East Wareham is located in Plymouth County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for East Wareham
    • Onset Station
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
    • Manomet
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
      • Manomet is located in Plymouth County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Manomet
    • White Horse Beach
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
      • White Horse Beach is located in Plymouth County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for White Horse Beach
    • Briarwood Beach
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
    • Wareham Center
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
      • Wareham Center is located in Plymouth County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wareham Center
    • Wareham
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
      • Wareham is located in Plymouth County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wareham
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 22,778 people
    • Weweantic
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
      • Weweantic is located in Plymouth County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Weweantic
    • Chiltonville
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
    • Cranberry Village
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
      • Cranberry Village is located in Plymouth County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cranberry Village

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

Cemeteries Near Barnstable ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Barnstable.

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

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Barnstable, with the one closest to Barnstable 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 Barnstable had a population of 400 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2010, Barnstable had a population of 45,193 people.

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

  • Yarmouth Station
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
    • Yarmouth Station is located in Barnstable County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Yarmouth Station
  • Yarmouth Port
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
    • Yarmouth Port is located in Barnstable County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Yarmouth Port
  • Centerville
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Hyannis
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
  • Yarmouth
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
  • West Barnstable
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
  • Craigville
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Craigville is located in Barnstable County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Craigville
  • Hyannis Port
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
  • West Yarmouth
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
  • Dennis
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Dennis is located in Barnstable County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dennis
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 13,890 people
  • Marstons Mills
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Osterville
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Osterville is located in Barnstable County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Osterville
  • Continue List   (14 more) ...
    • South Yarmouth
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
      • South Yarmouth is located in Barnstable County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Yarmouth
    • Wianno
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Wianno is located in Barnstable County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wianno
    • West Dennis
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
      • West Dennis is located in Barnstable County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West Dennis

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Barnstable ...

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 33 newspapers that have been published in the area around Barnstable.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Barnstable. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Barnstable and those printed in the larger area surrounding Barnstable.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 19 miles [30.6 km]<4> of Barnstable.

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 Barnstable:

Footnotes ...

<1>The Massachusetts Historical Commission (MHC) has created and maintains a database of historic properties that is called MACRIS (for the Massachusetts Cultural Resource Information System). More information about the MHC and MACRIS can be found on their website: mhc-macris.net.

When visiting the MACRIS website, you might encounter their page requiring the 'Acceptance of Terms'. With your acceptance, you'll be transfered to the desired page.

<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 Barnstable, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<4>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 from Point A (ie- Barnstable) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.