RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Maine >> Aroostook County >> Bridgewater Corner >> 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 Bridgewater Corner (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 Bridgewater Corner. 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 Bridgewater Corner ...

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 Bridgewater Corner: Bridgewater Cor. (or less commonly used: Bridgewater Crn.)

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.

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 southeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals were in the next county to the east. 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 east 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.

Bridgewater Corner is located in Aroostook 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 Aroostook County: Penobscot, Piscataquis, Somerset & Washington.

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

  • Aroostook County     (The home county of Bridgewater Corner)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Bridgewater Corner, with the one closest to Bridgewater Corner listed first.
    • Bridgewater
      (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Blaine
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Mars Hill
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Kings Grove
      (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
      • Kings Grove is located in Aroostook County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kings Grove
    • Westfield
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
      • Westfield is located in Aroostook County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Westfield
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 505 people
    • Monticello
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
    • Easton
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
      • Easton is located in Aroostook County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Easton
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,177 people
    • Hammond
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
      • Hammond is located in Aroostook County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hammond
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 109 people
    • Littleton
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
      • Littleton is located in Aroostook County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Littleton
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 982 people
    • Presque Isle
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Chapman
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
      • Chapman is located in Aroostook County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chapman
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 450 people
    • Mapleton
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)

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

Cemeteries Near Bridgewater Corner ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Bridgewater Corner.

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 Bridgewater Corner - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • Bridgewater Corner Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
  • Sanborn Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
  • Smith Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
  • Boundary Line Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
  • Tapley Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
  • East Blaine Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
  • Snow Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
  • Kings Grove Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
  • Kings Hill Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
  • Tracey Mills Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
  • Jewell Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
  • Pierce Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
  • Continue List   (136 more) ...
    • Marshall Cemetery
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Summerfield Cemetery
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Foster Cemetery
      (9 miles [14.5 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.<3>

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

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

  • Bridgewater
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
  • Blaine
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
  • Mars Hill
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
  • Westfield
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Westfield is located in Aroostook County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Westfield
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 505 people
  • Monticello
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
  • Easton
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
    • Easton is located in Aroostook County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Easton
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,177 people
  • Littleton
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
    • Littleton is located in Aroostook County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Littleton
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 982 people
  • Presque Isle
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
  • Maple Grove
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
    • Maple Grove is located in Aroostook County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Maple Grove
  • Parkhurst
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
    • Parkhurst is located in Aroostook County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Parkhurst
  • Mapleton
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Smyrna
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Smyrna is located in Aroostook County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Smyrna
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 419 people
  • Continue List   (13 more) ...
    • Houlton
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
    • Fort Fairfield
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
    • Roberts
      (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
      • Roberts is located in Aroostook County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Roberts

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

Newspapers Published in Bridgewater Corner ...

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 13 newspapers that have been published in the area around Bridgewater Corner.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Bridgewater Corner, there are papers which were published within 17 miles [27.4 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Bridgewater Corner.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we begin with the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These websites either 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 Bridgewater Corner:

  • Genealogy information for nearby counties

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