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 Hills Beach (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 Hills Beach. 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 Hills Beach ...
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.
- A typical abbreviation for Hills Beach: Hills Bch.
- While the name of this community is Hills Beach, be aware that it's the common practice of mapmakers to remove the apostrophe from possessive names<1>. So Hills Beach may originally have been Hill's Beach.
Sometimes the trailing 's' might be dropped altogether, in which case Hills Beach might be written as Hill Beach.
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 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.
Hills Beach is located in York 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 York County: Cumberland, Oxford, Carroll (NH), Rockingham (NH) & Strafford (NH).
Below are the counties that are near Hills Beach. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Hills Beach:
- York County (The home county of Hills Beach)
- The following are listed by their distance from Hills Beach, with the one closest to Hills Beach listed first.
- Biddeford Pool
(Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
- Kinney Shores
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
- Kinney Shores is located in York County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kinney Shores
- Ocean Park
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
- Old Orchard Beach
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
- Biddeford
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
- Saco
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
- Adams Corner
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
- Adams Corner is located in York County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Adams Corner
- Airport Village
(5 miles [8 km] to the west)
- Airport Village is located in York County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Airport Village
- Cape Porpoise
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
- Cape Porpoise is located in York County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cape Porpoise
- Arundel
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
- Town House Corners
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
- Town House Corners is located in York County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Town House Corners
- Kennebunk Landing
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
- Kennebunk Landing is located in York County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kennebunk Landing
- Cumberland County
- The following are listed by their distance from Hills Beach, with the one closest to Hills Beach listed first.
- Grand Beach
(5 miles [8 km] to the north)
- Grand Beach is located in Cumberland County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grand Beach
- Prouts Neck
(5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
- West Scarborough
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
- West Scarborough is located in Cumberland County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West Scarborough
- Danish Village ‑ Historic
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
- Danish Village is located in Cumberland County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Danish Village
- Scarborough
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
- Cape Elizabeth
(11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
- Cash Corner
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
- Cash Corner is located in Cumberland County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cash Corner
- Lone Creek Village ‑ Historic
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
- Lone Creek Village is located in Cumberland County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lone Creek Village
- North Scarborough
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
- North Scarborough is located in Cumberland County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Scarborough
- Pleasantdale
(13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
- Pleasantdale is located in Cumberland County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pleasantdale
- South Portland
(13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
- Ferry Village
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
- Ferry Village is located in Cumberland County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ferry Village
- Strafford County (NH)
- The following are listed by their distance from Hills Beach, with the one closest to Hills Beach listed first.
- Rollinsford
(26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
- Somersworth
(27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
- Somersworth is located in Strafford County (NH)
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Somersworth
- Population from the 2020 Census: 12,286 people
- Former names for Somersworth:
- Great Falls
- Summersworth
- Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Somersworth <2>
- East Rochester
(29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
- East Rochester is located in Strafford County (NH)
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for East Rochester
- Dover
(30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
- Dover is located in Strafford County (NH)
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dover
- Population from the 2020 Census: 32,443 people
- Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Dover <2>
- Milton
(30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
- Milton is located in Strafford County (NH)
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Milton
- Population from the 2020 Census: 4,614 people
- Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Milton <2>
For an expanded list of the communities that are closest to Hills Beach, see our County-by-County Page for Hills Beach.
Cemeteries Near Hills Beach ...
Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Hills Beach.
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 Hills Beach - one of the links might be able to help.
If not found below, our Cemetery List for Hills Beach covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.
The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Hills Beach, with the one closest to Hills Beach listed first.
- Laurel Hill Cemetery
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
- Woodlawn Cemetery
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
- St. Josephs Cemetery
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for St. Josephs Cemetery
- To give a relative sense of its location, the St. Josephs Cemetery is a very large cemetery that is located outside and to the south of Biddeford.
- Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #90506 <3>
- Greenwood Cemetery
(5 miles [8 km] to the west)
- St. Marys Cemetery
(5 miles [8 km] to the west)
- Arundel Cemetery
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
- West Scarboro Cemetery
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
- Evergreen Cemetery
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
- Home Cemetery
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
- Black Point Cemetery
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
- Russell Cemetery
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
- Hope Cemetery
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
- Continue List (169 more) ...
- Riverside Cemetery
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
- Mitchell - Hatch Cemetery
(11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
- Highland Memorial Gardens
(11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
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>
While we didn't find Hills Beach in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Hills Beach.
These communities are listed based on their distance from Hills Beach, with the one closest to Hills Beach listed first.
- Camp Ellis
(Less than 2 miles to the north)
- Camp Ellis is located in York County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Camp Ellis
- Ferry Beach
(Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
- Ferry Beach is located in York County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ferry Beach
- Biddeford Pool
(Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
- Bay View
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
- Bay View is located in York County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bay View
- Old Orchard Beach
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
- Saco
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
- Biddeford
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
- Prouts Neck
(5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
- Pine Point
(5 miles [8 km] to the north)
- Pine Point is located in Cumberland County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pine Point
- Cape Porpoise
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
- Cape Porpoise is located in York County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cape Porpoise
- Pine Point Beach
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
- Pine Point Beach is located in Cumberland County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pine Point Beach
- Arundel
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
- Continue List (18 more) ...
- West Scarborough
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
- West Scarborough is located in Cumberland County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West Scarborough
- Kennebunkport
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
- Kennebunkport is located in York County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kennebunkport
- Population from the 2020 Census: 3,672 people
- Kennebunk
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
We've also created an expanded list of communities that existed in the 1890's and were located in the area around Hills Beach. See our List of 1890's Communities around Hills Beach.
Newspapers Published in Hills Beach ...
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 282 newspapers that have been published in the area around Hills Beach.
Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Hills Beach, 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 Hills Beach.
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 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 Hills Beach:
- Websites specific to Maine
- Pages specific to York County
- Genealogy information for nearby counties
- Cumberland County
- Strafford County
- Cemetery Information and Directories for Maine
Footnotes ...
| <1> | It's generally believed that possessive apostrophes are removed to prevent confusion on maps where the apostrophe may be confused with a cartographic symbol. While this is generally true, it's not uncommon to find possessive apostrophes in administrative names (such as towns or counties). |
| <2> | While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program. |
| <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 Hills Beach, 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 things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Hills Beach) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'. |