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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 East Harwich (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 Harwich. 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 Harwich ...

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 East Harwich: E. Harwich

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 doctors 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.

East Harwich is located in Barnstable County.

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 East Harwich. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to East Harwich:

  • Barnstable County     (The home county of East Harwich)
    • The following are listed by their distance from East Harwich, with the one closest to East Harwich listed first.
    • South Chatham
      (Less than 2 miles to the south)
      • South Chatham is located in Barnstable County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Chatham
    • South Harwich
      (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
      • South Harwich is located in Barnstable County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Harwich
    • Chatham Port
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
      • Chatham Port is located in Barnstable County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chatham Port
    • West Chatham
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
      • West Chatham is located in Barnstable County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West Chatham
    • Harwich
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
      • Harwich is located in Barnstable County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harwich
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 12,144 people
    • Chatham
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
      • Chatham is located in Barnstable County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chatham
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 5,994 people
    • North Chatham
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
      • North Chatham is located in Barnstable County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Chatham
    • South Orleans
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
      • South Orleans is located in Barnstable County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Orleans
    • Harwich Port
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Harwich Port is located in Barnstable County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harwich Port
    • North Harwich
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
      • North Harwich is located in Barnstable County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Harwich
    • Brewster
      (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
      • Brewster is located in Barnstable County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brewster
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 9,772 people
    • West Brewster
      (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
      • West Brewster is located in Barnstable County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West Brewster
    • Dennis Port
      (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
      • Dennis Port is located in Barnstable County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dennis Port
  • Nantucket County
    • The following are listed by their distance from East Harwich, with the one closest to East Harwich listed first.
    • Pocomo
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
      • Pocomo is located in Nantucket County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pocomo
    • Nantucket
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
      • Nantucket is located in Nantucket County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nantucket
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 11,376 people
    • Siasconset
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
      • Siasconset is located in Nantucket County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Siasconset

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

Cemeteries Near East Harwich ...

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

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

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from East Harwich, with the one closest to East Harwich 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.<4>

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

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

  • South Harwich
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
    • South Harwich is located in Barnstable County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Harwich
  • South Chatham
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • South Chatham is located in Barnstable County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Chatham
  • Harwich
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Harwich is located in Barnstable County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harwich
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 12,144 people
  • West Chatham
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
    • West Chatham is located in Barnstable County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West Chatham
  • Chatham Port
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
    • Chatham Port is located in Barnstable County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chatham Port
  • Pleasant Lake
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
    • Pleasant Lake is located in Barnstable County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pleasant Lake
  • Harwich Port
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Harwich Port is located in Barnstable County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harwich Port
  • Chatham
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Chatham is located in Barnstable County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chatham
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 5,994 people
  • North Chatham
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • North Chatham is located in Barnstable County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Chatham
  • South Brewster
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
    • South Brewster is located in Barnstable County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Brewster
  • South Orleans
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • South Orleans is located in Barnstable County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Orleans
  • East Brewster
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • East Brewster is located in Barnstable County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for East Brewster
  • Continue List   (15 more) ...
    • North Harwich
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
      • North Harwich is located in Barnstable County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Harwich
    • Dennis Port
      (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
      • Dennis Port is located in Barnstable County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dennis Port
    • West Harwich
      (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
      • West Harwich is located in Barnstable County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West Harwich

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

Newspapers Published in East Harwich ...

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 30 newspapers that have been published in the area around East Harwich.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of East Harwich, there are papers which were published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for East Harwich.

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 East Harwich:

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>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- East Harwich) 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 East Harwich, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.