RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Massachusetts >> Plymouth County >> East Bridgewater >> Genealogy HelperIndex...

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 East Bridgewater (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 East Bridgewater. 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 East Bridgewater ...

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.

For example, a typical abbreviation for East Bridgewater: E. Bridgewater

You might be interested in other communities that are also named East Bridgewater. More information can be found on our Tidbits & Trivia Page for East Bridgewater.

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.

A Few Details for East Bridgewater ...

While it's still very early in our research, we found that:

  • East Bridgewater was settled in 1649.
  • It was incorporated in 1823.

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 northeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals and doctors were in the next county to the east. 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 east 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.

East Bridgewater is located in Plymouth County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Plymouth County: Barnstable, Bristol & Norfolk.

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

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

Cemeteries Near East Bridgewater ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of East Bridgewater.

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 East Bridgewater - one of the links might be able to help.

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from East Bridgewater, with the one closest to East Bridgewater 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, East Bridgewater had a post office and railroad service. In 2020, East Bridgewater had a population of 14,554 people.

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

  • Satucket
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
    • Satucket is located in Plymouth County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Satucket
  • Westdale
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
    • Westdale is located in Plymouth County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Westdale
  • Elmwood
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Elmwood is located in Plymouth County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elmwood
  • Matfield
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
    • Matfield is located in Plymouth County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Matfield
  • West Bridgewater
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
    • West Bridgewater is located in Plymouth County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West Bridgewater
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 7,310 people
  • Bridgewater
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
  • North Hanson
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • North Hanson is located in Plymouth County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Hanson
  • Whitman
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Whitman is located in Plymouth County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Whitman
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 15,295 people
  • Campello
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Campello is located in Plymouth County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Campello
  • Cochesett
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
  • Scotland
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Scotland is located in Plymouth County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Scotland
  • South Hanson
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • South Hanson is located in Plymouth County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Hanson
  • Continue List   (18 more) ...

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of East Bridgewater ...

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 37 newspapers that have been published in the area around East Bridgewater.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of East Bridgewater. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of East Bridgewater and those printed in the larger area surrounding East Bridgewater.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 11 miles [17.7 km]<4> of East Bridgewater.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we like to start 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 East Bridgewater:

Footnotes ...

<1>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.
<2>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.

<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 East Bridgewater, 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' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- East Bridgewater) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.