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A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Massachusetts >> Nantucket County >> Plainfield >> 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 Plainfield (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 Plainfield. 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.

Cemeteries Near Plainfield ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Plainfield.

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

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Plainfield, with the one closest to Plainfield 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 Plainfield in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Plainfield.

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

  • Siasconset
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
    • Siasconset is located in Nantucket County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Siasconset
  • Nantucket
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Nantucket is located in Nantucket County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nantucket
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 11,376 people
  • Harwich Port
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
    • Harwich Port is located in Barnstable County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harwich Port
  • West Harwich
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
    • West Harwich is located in Barnstable County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West Harwich
  • Dennis Port
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
    • Dennis Port is located in Barnstable County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dennis Port
  • West Chatham
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
    • West Chatham is located in Barnstable County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West Chatham
  • Chatham
    (27 miles [43.5 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
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
    • South Chatham is located in Barnstable County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Chatham
  • South Harwich
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
    • South Harwich is located in Barnstable County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Harwich
  • West Dennis
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
    • West Dennis is located in Barnstable County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West Dennis
  • South Yarmouth
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
    • South Yarmouth is located in Barnstable County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Yarmouth
  • West Yarmouth
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
    • West Yarmouth is located in Barnstable County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West Yarmouth
  • Continue List   (9 more) ...
    • North Chatham
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
      • North Chatham is located in Barnstable County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Chatham
    • East Harwich
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
      • East Harwich is located in Barnstable County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for East Harwich
    • Edgartown
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
      • Edgartown is located in Dukes County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Edgartown
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 4,383 people

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

Newspapers Published in Plainfield ...

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 34 newspapers that have been published in the area around Plainfield.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Plainfield, there are papers which were published within 28 miles [45.1 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Plainfield.

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 Plainfield:

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 Plainfield, 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 obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Plainfield) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.