RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Maine >> Somerset County >> Blair >> 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 Blair (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 Blair. 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 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.

Blair is located in Somerset County.

To see how the shape of Maine's counties may have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Somerset County: Franklin, Kennebec, Penobscot, Piscataquis & Waldo.

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

  • Somerset County     (The home county of Blair)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Blair, with the one closest to Blair listed first.
    • Jackman
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
    • Long Pond
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
      • Long Pond is located in Somerset County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Long Pond
    • Moose River
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
      • Moose River is located in Somerset County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Moose River
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 207 people
    • Mackamp
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
      • Mackamp is located in Somerset County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mackamp
    • Dennistown Plantation
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Dennistown Plantation is located in Somerset County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dennistown Plantation
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 31 people
    • Holeb
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
      • Holeb is located in Somerset County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Holeb
    • West Forks Plantation
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
      • West Forks Plantation is located in Somerset County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West Forks Plantation
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 58 people
    • West Forks
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Somerset Junction
      (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
      • Somerset Junction is located in Somerset County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Somerset Junction
    • Rockwood
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
    • The Forks
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
      • The Forks is located in Somerset County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for The Forks
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 35 people
      • The Forks has also been known as:
      • The Forks Plantation
      • Plantation of The Forks
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for The Forks <1>
    • Caratunk
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
  • Franklin County
    • Lowelltown
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
      • Lowelltown is located in Franklin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lowelltown
  • Piscataquis County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Blair, with the one closest to Blair listed first.
    • Moosehead
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
      • Moosehead is located in Piscataquis County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Moosehead
    • Greenville Junction
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Greenville
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
    • North East Carry
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
      • North East Carry is located in Piscataquis County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North East Carry

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

Cemeteries Near Blair ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Blair.

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

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Blair, with the one closest to Blair listed first.

  • St. Josephs Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
  • St. Josephs Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
  • Flagstaff Cemetery
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)

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.<2>

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

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

  • Jackman
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
  • Long Pond
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Long Pond is located in Somerset County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Long Pond
  • Moose River
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Moose River is located in Somerset County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Moose River
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 207 people
  • Mackamp
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
    • Mackamp is located in Somerset County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mackamp
  • Holeb
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
    • Holeb is located in Somerset County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Holeb
  • West Forks
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
  • The Forks
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
    • The Forks is located in Somerset County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for The Forks
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 35 people
    • The Forks has also been known as:
    • The Forks Plantation
    • Plantation of The Forks
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for The Forks <1>
  • Moosehead
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
    • Moosehead is located in Piscataquis County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Moosehead
  • Lowelltown
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
    • Lowelltown is located in Franklin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lowelltown
  • Greenville Junction
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)

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

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 Blair:

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>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 Blair, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.