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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 Wiscasset (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 Wiscasset. 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 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.

Wiscasset is located in Lincoln County and is the County Seat.

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 Lincoln County: Kennebec, Knox, Sagadahoc & Waldo.

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

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

Cemeteries Near Wiscasset ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Wiscasset.

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 Wiscasset - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • Ancient Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
  • Woodlawn Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
  • Rhumrill Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
  • Grover Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
  • North Edgecomb Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
  • Jackson Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
  • Huntoon Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
  • Quinnam Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
  • Marston Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
  • Knight Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
  • Bailey Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Lowell Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
  • Continue List   (325 more) ...
    • Sheepscott Cemetery
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Greenleaf Cemetery
      (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Glidden Cemetery
      (5 miles [8 km] to the east)

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 Wiscasset had a population of 1,250 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Wiscasset had a population of 3,748 people.

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

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Wiscasset ...

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 60 newspapers that have been published in the area around Wiscasset.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Wiscasset. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Wiscasset and those printed in the larger area surrounding Wiscasset.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 16 miles [25.7 km]<3> of Wiscasset.

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 Wiscasset:

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 Wiscasset, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<3>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- Wiscasset) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.