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A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Massachusetts >> Worcester County >> West Brookfield >> 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 West Brookfield (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 West Brookfield. 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 West Brookfield ...

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 West Brookfield: W. Brookfield

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

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 West Brookfield ...

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

  • West Brookfield was settled in 1664.
  • It was incorporated in 1848.

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 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.

West Brookfield is located in Worcester 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 Worcester County: Tolland (CT), Windham (CT), Franklin, Hampden, Hampshire, Middlesex, Norfolk, Cheshire (NH), Hillsborough (NH) & Providence (RI).

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

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

Cemeteries Near West Brookfield ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of West Brookfield.

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 West Brookfield - one of the links might be able to help.

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from West Brookfield, with the one closest to West Brookfield 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 West Brookfield had a population of 1,592 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, West Brookfield had a population of 3,713 people.

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

  • Warren
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Warren is located in Worcester County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Warren
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 5,203 people
  • Brookfield
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Brookfield is located in Worcester County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brookfield
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 3,439 people
  • North Brookfield
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
  • East Brookfield
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
  • West Warren
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
  • New Braintree
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • New Braintree is located in Worcester County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for New Braintree
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,020 people
  • Ware
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
  • South Spencer
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • South Spencer is located in Worcester County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Spencer
  • Gilbertville
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
  • West Brimfield
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
    • West Brimfield is located in Hampden County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West Brimfield
  • Spencer
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
  • Furnace
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • Furnace is located in Worcester County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Furnace
  • Continue List   (15 more) ...
    • Brimfield
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
      • Brimfield is located in Hampden County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brimfield
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 3,679 people
    • East Brimfield
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
      • East Brimfield is located in Hampden County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for East Brimfield
    • Fiskdale
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)

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

Newspapers Published in West Brookfield ...

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 31 newspapers that have been published in the area around West Brookfield.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of West Brookfield, there are papers which were published within 16 miles [25.7 km]<5>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for West Brookfield.

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 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 West Brookfield:

Footnotes ...

<1>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<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>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 West Brookfield, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<5>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- West Brookfield) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.