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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 Watervliet (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 Watervliet. 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 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.

Watervliet is located in Berrien County.

To see how the shape of Michigan's counties have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Berrien County: LaPorte (IN), Saint Joseph (IN), Cass & Van Buren.

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

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

Cemeteries Near Watervliet ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Watervliet.

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.

If you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our selection of Genealogy Websites (see below).

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

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

  • Watervliet Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Watervliet Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Watervliet Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • St. Joseph Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Joseph Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Joseph Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Fairview Memorial Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Fairview Memorial Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Fairview Memorial Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Coloma Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
  • Kniebes Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
  • St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • St. Pauls UCC Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Pauls UCC Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Pauls UCC Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Zion EUB Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Zion EUB Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Zion EUB Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Boyer Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Boyer Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Boyer Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Byers Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Byers Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Byers Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Emmanuel Home Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Emmanuel Home Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Emmanuel Home Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Maple Hill Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Maple Hill Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Maple Hill Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Continue List   (212 more) ...
    • Pioneer Cemetery
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Pioneer Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Pioneer Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Rush Lake Catholic Cemetery
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Rush Lake Catholic Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Rush Lake Catholic Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Harris Cemetery
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Harris Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Harris Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.

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.<5>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Watervliet had a population of 308 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Watervliet had a population of 1,635 people.

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

  • Coloma
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
  • Hartford
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
  • Toquin
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Toquin have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Toquin
    • Toquin is located in Van Buren County
  • Twelve Corners
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Millburg
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Millburg have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Millburg
    • Millburg is located in Berrien County
  • Riverside
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Riverside. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Riverside
    • Riverside is located in Berrien County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Riverside
    • From Watervliet to Riverside
  • Covert
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
  • Spinks Corners
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Spinks Corners have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spinks Corners
    • Spinks Corners is located in Berrien County
  • McDonald
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for McDonald have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for McDonald
    • McDonald is located in Van Buren County
  • Sister Lakes
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Sister Lakes have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sister Lakes
    • Sister Lakes is located in Van Buren County
  • Naomi
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Naomi. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Naomi
    • Naomi is located in Berrien County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Naomi
    • From Watervliet to Naomi
  • Lawrence
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
  • Continue List   (14 more) ...

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Watervliet ...

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 40 newspapers that have been published in the area around Watervliet.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Watervliet. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Watervliet and those printed in the larger area surrounding Watervliet.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 25 miles [40.2 km]<6> of Watervliet.

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 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 Watervliet:

Unfortunately, we don't know of a website for Watervliet. If you can help, please contact us through our Feedback Page.

The official website for State of Michigan: https://www.michigan.gov/

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 location has been supplied by the Geographic Names Information System - which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While these values should be definitive, we found that accuracy can vary and you should double-check the location if accuracy is required.
<3>An 'estimated' location is one where we have been given GPS coordinates, but are unable to verify the accuracy of those coordinates. That said, we have some confidence that we have placed the marker near the actual location. A typical reason for being unable to verify a location is that it might be on private property or maybe historic and gone without an obvious trace.
<4>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.
<5>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 Watervliet, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<6>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Watervliet) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Watervliet. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 42.1867, Longitude: -86.2607    









 

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This page was last modified/updated: 28 Apr 2025