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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 Old Harbor (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 Old Harbor. 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.

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 southwest 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 south.

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 south 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.

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

  • Barnstable County     (The home county of Old Harbor)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Old Harbor, with the one closest to Old Harbor listed first.
    • Chatham
      (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
      • Chatham is located in Barnstable County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chatham
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 5,994 people
    • South Chatham
      (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
      • South Chatham is located in Barnstable County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Chatham
    • West Chatham
      (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
      • West Chatham is located in Barnstable County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West Chatham
    • Harwich Port
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Harwich Port is located in Barnstable County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harwich Port
    • South Harwich
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
      • South Harwich is located in Barnstable County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Harwich
    • Chatham Port
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
      • Chatham Port is located in Barnstable County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chatham Port
    • East Harwich
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
      • East Harwich is located in Barnstable County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for East Harwich
    • North Chatham
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
      • North Chatham is located in Barnstable County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Chatham
    • Harwich
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Harwich is located in Barnstable County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harwich
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 12,144 people
    • Dennis Port
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
      • Dennis Port is located in Barnstable County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dennis Port
    • West Harwich
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
      • West Harwich is located in Barnstable County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West Harwich
    • North Harwich
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
      • North Harwich is located in Barnstable County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Harwich
  • Dukes County
    • Edgartown
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Edgartown is located in Dukes County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Edgartown
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 4,383 people
  • Nantucket County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Old Harbor, with the one closest to Old Harbor listed first.
    • Pocomo
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
      • Pocomo is located in Nantucket County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pocomo
    • Nantucket
      (22 miles [35.4 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
      (23 miles [37 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 Old Harbor, see our County-by-County Page for Old Harbor.

Cemeteries Near Old Harbor ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Old Harbor.

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 Old Harbor - one of the links might be able to help.

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Old Harbor, with the one closest to Old Harbor 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>

While we didn't find Old Harbor in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Old Harbor.

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

  • South Chatham
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • South Chatham is located in Barnstable County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Chatham
  • Chatham
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Chatham is located in Barnstable County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chatham
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 5,994 people
  • West Chatham
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • West Chatham is located in Barnstable County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West Chatham
  • South Harwich
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • South Harwich is located in Barnstable County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Harwich
  • Harwich Port
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Harwich Port is located in Barnstable County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harwich Port
  • East Harwich
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • East Harwich is located in Barnstable County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for East Harwich
  • North Chatham
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • North Chatham is located in Barnstable County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Chatham
  • Chatham Port
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • Chatham Port is located in Barnstable County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chatham Port
  • Harwich
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Harwich is located in Barnstable County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harwich
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 12,144 people
  • West Harwich
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
    • West Harwich is located in Barnstable County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West Harwich
  • Dennis Port
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Dennis Port is located in Barnstable County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dennis Port
  • Pleasant Lake
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Pleasant Lake is located in Barnstable County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pleasant Lake
  • Continue List   (13 more) ...
    • North Harwich
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
      • North Harwich is located in Barnstable County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Harwich
    • South Brewster
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
      • South Brewster is located in Barnstable County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Brewster
    • South Orleans
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
      • South Orleans is located in Barnstable County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Orleans

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

Newspapers Published in Old Harbor ...

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 45 newspapers that have been published in the area around Old Harbor.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Old Harbor, there are papers which were published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Old Harbor.

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 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 Old Harbor:

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 Old Harbor, 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- Old Harbor) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.