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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 West Springfield (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 Springfield. 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 Springfield ...

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 West Springfield: W. Springfield

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

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 Springfield ...

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

  • West Springfield was settled in 1660.
  • It was incorporated in 1774.

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 and hospitals 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.

West Springfield is located in Hampden 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 Hampden County: Hartford (CT), Litchfield (CT), Tolland (CT), Berkshire, Hampshire & Worcester.

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

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

Cemeteries Near West Springfield ...

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

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

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from West Springfield, with the one closest to West Springfield 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 Springfield had a population of 500 people in 1895 with a post office and no railroad service. In 2020, West Springfield had a population of 28,397 people.

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

  • Brightwood
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
    • Brightwood is located in Hampden County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brightwood
  • Merrick
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
    • Merrick is located in Hampden County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Merrick
  • Mittineague
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
    • Mittineague is located in Hampden County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mittineague
  • Springfield
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
  • Agawam
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
  • Chicopee
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
  • Athol Junction
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Athol Junction is located in Hampden County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Athol Junction
  • Chicopee Falls
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Chicopee Falls is located in Hampden County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chicopee Falls
  • Feeding Hills
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Longmeadow
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
  • Ingleside
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Ingleside is located in Hampden County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ingleside
  • East Longmeadow
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • East Longmeadow is located in Hampden County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for East Longmeadow
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 16,093 people
  • 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 West Springfield. See our List of 1890's Communities around West Springfield.

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of West Springfield ...

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 49 newspapers that have been published in the area around West Springfield.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of West Springfield. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of West Springfield and those printed in the larger area surrounding West Springfield.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 12 miles [19.3 km]<5> of West Springfield.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we like to start with 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 Springfield:

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