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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 Kingston (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 Kingston. 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.

A Few Details for Kingston ...

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

  • Kingston was settled in 1620.
  • It was incorporated in 1726.

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 and 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.

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

  • Plymouth County     (The home county of Kingston)
  • Barnstable County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Kingston, with the one closest to Kingston listed first.
    • Sagamore Beach
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Sagamore Beach is located in Barnstable County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sagamore Beach
    • Buzzards Bay
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
      • Buzzards Bay is located in Barnstable County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Buzzards Bay
    • Bourne
      (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
      • Bourne is located in Barnstable County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bourne
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 19,743 people
    • Sagamore
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
      • Sagamore is located in Barnstable County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sagamore
    • Monument Beach
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
      • Monument Beach is located in Barnstable County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Monument Beach
    • Sandwich
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Pocasset
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
    • East Sandwich
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Plowed Neck
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Cataumet
      (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
      • Cataumet is located in Barnstable County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cataumet
    • Forestdale
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
    • North Falmouth
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
      • North Falmouth is located in Barnstable County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Falmouth
    • Silver Beach
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
      • Silver Beach is located in Barnstable County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Silver Beach
  • Bristol County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Kingston, with the one closest to Kingston listed first.
    • East Taunton
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Raynham Center
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
      • Raynham Center is located in Bristol County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Raynham Center
    • Raynham
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
    • South Easton
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
      • South Easton is located in Bristol County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Easton
    • East Freetown
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Long Plain
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Easton Center
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
    • Easton
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
      • Easton is located in Bristol County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Easton
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 25,116 people
    • Taunton
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
    • Berkley
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
      • Berkley is located in Bristol County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Berkley
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 6,900 people
    • Furnace Village
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
      • Furnace Village is located in Bristol County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Furnace Village
    • North Easton
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
      • North Easton is located in Bristol County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Easton
    • Weir Village
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
  • Norfolk County
  • Suffolk County

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

Cemeteries Near Kingston ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Kingston.

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

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Kingston, with the one closest to Kingston 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 Kingston had a population of 1,659 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Kingston had a population of 14,024 people.

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

  • Island Creek
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
  • North Plymouth
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
  • Plymouth
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
  • Silver Lake
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
    • Silver Lake is located in Plymouth County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Silver Lake
  • East Carver
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • East Carver is located in Plymouth County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for East Carver
  • Duxbury
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Duxbury is located in Plymouth County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Duxbury
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 15,932 people
  • Millbrook
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Millbrook is located in Plymouth County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Millbrook
  • Plympton
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Plympton is located in Plymouth County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Plympton
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,998 people
  • West Duxbury
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
    • West Duxbury is located in Plymouth County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West Duxbury
  • North Duxbury
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • North Duxbury is located in Plymouth County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Duxbury
  • North Carver
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
  • East Pembroke
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • East Pembroke is located in Plymouth County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for East Pembroke
  • 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 Kingston. See our List of 1890's Communities around Kingston.

Newspapers Published in Kingston ...

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 48 newspapers that have been published in the area around Kingston.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Kingston, there are papers which were published within 13 miles [20.9 km]<2>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Kingston.

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 professional and volunteer 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 Kingston:

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>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Kingston) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<3>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.
<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 Kingston, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.