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 Smyrna Center (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 Smyrna Center. 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 Smyrna Center ...
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 Smyrna Center: Smyrna Ctr. (or less commonly used: Smyrna Cen., Smyrna Cent. or Smyrna Cntr.)
You might see Smyrna Centre instead of Smyrna Center.
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.
For more information about how community names might have been affected by the Board of Geographic Names (BGN), see our page about Placename Rules.
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 southwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors were in the next county to the west. 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 west 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.
Smyrna Center 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 Smyrna Center. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Smyrna Center:
- Aroostook County (The home county of Smyrna Center)
- The following are listed by their distance from Smyrna Center, with the one closest to Smyrna Center listed first.
- Smyrna
(Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
- Smyrna is located in Aroostook County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Smyrna
- Population from the 2020 Census: 419 people
- Ludlow
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
- Ludlow is located in Aroostook County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ludlow
- Population from the 2020 Census: 366 people
- Smyrna Mills
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
- Oakfield
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
- Dyer Brook
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
- Dyer Brook is located in Aroostook County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dyer Brook
- Population from the 2020 Census: 193 people
- Merrill
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
- Merrill is located in Aroostook County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Merrill
- Population from the 2020 Census: 250 people
- New Limerick
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
- Hammond
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
- Hammond is located in Aroostook County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hammond
- Population from the 2020 Census: 109 people
- Linneus
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
- Linneus is located in Aroostook County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Linneus
- Population from the 2020 Census: 907 people
- Houlton
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
- Moro Plantation
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
- Moro Plantation is located in Aroostook County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Moro Plantation
- Population from the 2020 Census: 35 people
- Hodgdon
(13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
- Hodgdon is located in Aroostook County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hodgdon
- Population from the 2020 Census: 1,267 people
- Island Falls
(13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
- Penobscot County
- The following are listed by their distance from Smyrna Center, with the one closest to Smyrna Center listed first.
- Patten
(20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
- Mount Chase
(20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
- Mount Chase is located in Penobscot County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mount Chase
- Population from the 2020 Census: 192 people
- Shin Pond
(22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
- Shin Pond is located in Penobscot County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shin Pond
- Sherman Station
(23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
- Sherman Station is located in Penobscot County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sherman Station
- Stacyville
(28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
- Stacyville is located in Penobscot County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stacyville
- Population from the 2020 Census: 379 people
For an expanded list of the communities that are closest to Smyrna Center, see our County-by-County Page for Smyrna Center.
Cemeteries Near Smyrna Center ...
Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Smyrna Center.
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 Smyrna Center - one of the links might be able to help.
If not found below, our Cemetery List for Smyrna Center covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.
The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Smyrna Center, with the one closest to Smyrna Center listed first.
- Stewart Cemetery
(Less than 2 miles to the east)
- Amish Cemetery
(Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
- Timoney Cemetery
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
- Yerxa Cemetery
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Yerxa Cemetery
- The Yerxa Cemetery has also been known as:
- Lower Smyrna Cemetery
- Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #90739 <2>
- Smyrna Mills Cemetery
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
- Merrill Cemetery
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
- Tarbell Cemetery
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
- Oakfield Cemetery
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
- Barrows Chambers Cemetery
(5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
- Dyer Brook Cemetery
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
- Oakfield Cemetery
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
- New Limerick Cemetery
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
- Continue List (91 more) ...
- Ludlow Cemetery
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
- Linneus Cemetery
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
- Bates Cemetery
(11 miles [17.7 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>
While we didn't find Smyrna Center in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Smyrna Center.
These communities are listed based on their distance from Smyrna Center, with the one closest to Smyrna Center listed first.
- Smyrna
(Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
- Smyrna is located in Aroostook County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Smyrna
- Population from the 2020 Census: 419 people
- Smyrna Mills
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
- Oakfield
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
- Dyer Brook
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
- Dyer Brook is located in Aroostook County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dyer Brook
- Population from the 2020 Census: 193 people
- New Limerick
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
- Linneus
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
- Linneus is located in Aroostook County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Linneus
- Population from the 2020 Census: 907 people
- Houlton
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
- Moro
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
- Moro is located in Aroostook County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Moro
- Island Falls
(13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
- Hodgdon
(13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
- Hodgdon is located in Aroostook County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hodgdon
- Population from the 2020 Census: 1,267 people
- Littleton
(13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
- Littleton is located in Aroostook County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Littleton
- Population from the 2020 Census: 982 people
- Monticello
(16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
- Continue List (13 more) ...
- Hersey
(17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
- Hersey is located in Aroostook County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hersey
- Population from the 2020 Census: 76 people
- Crystal
(18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
- Crystal is located in Aroostook County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crystal
- Population from the 2020 Census: 247 people
- North Amity
(19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
- North Amity is located in Aroostook County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Amity
We've also created an expanded list of communities that existed in the 1890's and were located in the area around Smyrna Center. See our List of 1890's Communities around Smyrna Center.
Newspapers Published in Smyrna Center ...
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 10 newspapers that have been published in the area around Smyrna Center.
Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Smyrna Center, there are papers which were published within 27 miles [43.5 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Smyrna Center.
Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...
When we do our genealogical research, we first visit the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These helpful 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 Smyrna Center:
- Websites specific to Maine
- Pages specific to Aroostook County
- Genealogy information for nearby counties
- Cemetery Information and Directories for Maine
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 Smyrna Center, 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 things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Smyrna Center) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'. |