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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 Seal Harbor (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 Seal Harbor. 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 Seal Harbor ...

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.

For example, a typical abbreviation for Seal Harbor: Seal Hbr. (or less commonly used: Seal Harb. or Seal Hrbr.)

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 and hospitals 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.

Seal Harbor is located in Hancock 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 Hancock County: Penobscot, Waldo & Washington.

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

  • Hancock County     (The home county of Seal Harbor)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Seal Harbor, with the one closest to Seal Harbor listed first.
    • Otter Creek
      (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
    • Islesford
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
      • Islesford is located in Hancock County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Islesford
    • Northeast Harbor
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
    • Cranberry Isles
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
      • Cranberry Isles is located in Hancock County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cranberry Isles
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 138 people
    • Mount Desert
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Manset
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
      • Manset is located in Hancock County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Manset
    • Southwest Harbor
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Bar Harbor
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Bass Harbor
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Tremont
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Tremont is located in Hancock County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tremont
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,602 people
    • Hulls Cove
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • Bernard
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
  • Knox County
    • Isle Au Haut
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Washington County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Seal Harbor, with the one closest to Seal Harbor listed first.
    • Steuben
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
    • East Steuben
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
      • East Steuben is located in Washington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for East Steuben
    • Milbridge
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
    • Cherryfield
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Harrington
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)

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

Cemeteries Near Seal Harbor ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Seal Harbor.

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 Seal Harbor - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • Seal Harbor Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
  • Kimball Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
  • Forest Hill Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
  • Mt. Height Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Union Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Bernard Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Meeting House Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
  • Brookside Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Hillrest Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
  • Norwood Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
  • Paine Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
  • The Graveyard
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Continue List   (127 more) ...
    • Mountain View Cemetery
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Flye Cemetery
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Murphy Hill Cemetery
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)

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>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Seal Harbor had a population of 150 people in 1895 with a post office and no railroad service.

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

  • Otter Creek
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
  • Northeast Harbor
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
  • Asticou
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
    • Asticou is located in Hancock County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Asticou
  • Cranberry Isles
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • Cranberry Isles is located in Hancock County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cranberry Isles
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 138 people
  • Southwest Harbor
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
  • Seawall
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Seawall is located in Hancock County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Seawall
  • Mount Desert
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
  • Tremont
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Tremont is located in Hancock County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tremont
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,602 people
  • Bar Harbor
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
  • West Tremont
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
  • Hulls Cove
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
  • Seal Cove
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
  • Continue List   (16 more) ...
    • Indian Point
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
      • Indian Point is located in Hancock County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Indian Point
    • Pretty Marsh
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
      • Pretty Marsh is located in Hancock County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pretty Marsh
    • Eden
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Eden is located in Hancock County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eden

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

Newspapers Published in Seal Harbor ...

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 58 newspapers that have been published in the area around Seal Harbor.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Seal Harbor, there are papers which were published within 28 miles [45.1 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Seal Harbor.

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 Seal Harbor:

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 Seal Harbor, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<4>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 drawn from Point A (ie- Seal Harbor) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.