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A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of North Carolina >> Mecklenburg County >> Matthews >> Genealogy HelperIndex...

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 Matthews (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 Matthews. 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 northwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors and hospitals were in the next county to the west. 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 west 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.

Matthews is located in Mecklenburg County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Mecklenburg County: Cabarrus, Gaston, Iredell, Lincoln, Union, Lancaster (SC) & York (SC).

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

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

Cemeteries Near Matthews ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Matthews.

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

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

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

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 Matthews had a population of 335 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Matthews had a population of 33,718 people.

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

  • Hoods ‑ Historic
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Hoods is located in Mecklenburg County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hoods
  • Kingwood ‑ Historic
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Kingwood is located in Mecklenburg County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kingwood
  • Sardis
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
    • Sardis is located in Mecklenburg County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sardis
  • Indian Trail
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
  • Mint Hill
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
  • Eastfield
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
    • Eastfield is located in Mecklenburg County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eastfield
  • Stouts
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Stouts is located in Union County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stouts
  • Burdett ‑ Historic
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Burdett is located in Mecklenburg County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Burdett
  • Pineville
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
  • Harrison ‑ Historic
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Harrison is located in Mecklenburg County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harrison
  • Charlotte
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Hebron ‑ Historic
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
    • Hebron is located in Mecklenburg County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hebron
  • Continue List   (16 more) ...
    • Barberville
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Barberville is located in Lancaster County (SC)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Barberville
    • Pleasant Valley
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Pleasant Valley is located in Lancaster County (SC)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pleasant Valley
    • Wolfville ‑ Historic
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
      • Wolfville is located in Union County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wolfville

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

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we start with the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These professional and volunteer 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 Matthews:

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 Matthews, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.