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A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
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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 Island Falls (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 Island Falls. 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 hospitals and 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.

Island Falls 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 Island Falls. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Island Falls:

  • Aroostook County     (The home county of Island Falls)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Island Falls, with the one closest to Island Falls listed first.
    • Crystal
      (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
      • Crystal is located in Aroostook County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crystal
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 247 people
    • Dyer Brook
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Oakfield
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Smyrna Mills
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Hersey
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Merrill
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
      • Merrill is located in Aroostook County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Merrill
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 250 people
    • Sherman Mills
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Moro Plantation
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Moro Plantation is located in Aroostook County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Moro Plantation
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 35 people
    • Sherman
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Smyrna
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
      • Smyrna is located in Aroostook County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Smyrna
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 419 people
    • Ludlow
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
      • Ludlow is located in Aroostook County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ludlow
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 366 people
    • Benedicta
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
  • Penobscot County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Island Falls, with the one closest to Island Falls listed first.
    • Patten
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Sherman Station
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Sherman Station is located in Penobscot County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sherman Station
    • Mount Chase
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Mount Chase is located in Penobscot County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mount Chase
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 192 people
    • Shin Pond
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Stacyville
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Drew Plantation
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
      • Drew Plantation is located in Penobscot County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Drew Plantation
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 37 people
    • East Millinocket
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Medway
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Medway is located in Penobscot County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Medway
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,312 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Medway <1>
  • Piscataquis County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Island Falls, with the one closest to Island Falls listed first.
    • Old City
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
      • Old City is located in Piscataquis County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Old City
    • New City
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
      • New City is located in Piscataquis County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for New City
  • Washington County
    • Danforth
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)

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

Cemeteries Near Island Falls ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Island Falls.

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 Island Falls - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • Village Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
  • St. Agnes Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
  • Golden Ridge Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
  • Crystal Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
  • Dyer Brook Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Bates Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
  • Oakfield Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
  • Barrows Chambers Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
  • Tarbell Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
  • Oakfield Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Merrill Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Hersey Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Continue List   (64 more) ...
    • Sherman Mills Cemetery
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Darling Cemetery
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
    • Marley Bradford Cemetery
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)

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>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Island Falls had a population of 178 people in 1895 with a post office and no railroad service. In 2020, Island Falls had a population of 773 people.

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

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

Newspapers Published in Island Falls ...

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 8 newspapers that have been published in the area around Island Falls.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Island Falls, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Island Falls.

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 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 Island Falls:

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 Island Falls, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<3>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a '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- Island Falls) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.