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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 Merritt (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 Merritt. 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.

Merritt is located in Pamlico 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 Pamlico County: Beaufort, Carteret & Craven.

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

  • Pamlico County     (The home county of Merritt)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Merritt, with the one closest to Merritt listed first.
    • Stonewall
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Pamlico
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Bayboro
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Oriental
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • Alliance
      (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
    • Vandemere
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Vandemere is located in Pamlico County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Vandemere
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 243 people
    • Bay City
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Bay City is located in Pamlico County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bay City
    • Mesic
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Arapahoe
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Grantsboro
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Minnesott Beach
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Minnesott Beach is located in Pamlico County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Minnesott Beach
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 423 people
    • Reelsboro
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
  • Beaufort County
  • Carteret County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Merritt, with the one closest to Merritt listed first.
    • Sportsmans Village
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Sportsmans Village is located in Carteret County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sportsmans Village
    • North River
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
    • Bettie
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
    • Conner Village
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
      • Conner Village is located in Carteret County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Conner Village
    • Cedar Island
      (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
    • Crab Point Village
      (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
      • Crab Point Village is located in Carteret County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crab Point Village
    • Newport
      (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
    • Holly Springs
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
      • Holly Springs is located in Carteret County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Holly Springs
    • Otway
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
    • Sealevel
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Stacy
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
      • Stacy is located in Carteret County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stacy
    • Williston
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
      • Williston is located in Carteret County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Williston
  • Craven County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Merritt, with the one closest to Merritt listed first.
    • Bachelor
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
    • Fairfield Harbour
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
      • Fairfield Harbour is located in Craven County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fairfield Harbour
    • Cherry Point ‑ Historic
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Spring Hope
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Neuse Forest
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Neuse Forest is located in Craven County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Neuse Forest
    • Riverdale
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Hancock Village
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
      • Hancock Village is located in Craven County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hancock Village
    • Bridgeton
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
    • Havelock
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
    • Manteo
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
      • Manteo is located in Craven County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Manteo
    • James City
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
      • James City is located in Craven County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for James City
    • New Bern
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
  • Hyde County
  • Jones County

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

Cemeteries Near Merritt ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Merritt.

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

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Merritt, with the one closest to Merritt 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.<4>

While we didn't find Merritt in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Merritt.

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

  • Kershaw
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • Kershaw is located in Pamlico County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kershaw
  • Stonewall
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Oriental
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
  • Pamlico
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
  • Maribel
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Maribel is located in Pamlico County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Maribel
  • Bayboro
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
  • Florence
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Florence is located in Pamlico County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Florence
  • Alliance
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
  • Vandemere
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Vandemere is located in Pamlico County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Vandemere
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 243 people
  • Janeiro
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Janeiro is located in Pamlico County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Janeiro
  • Arapahoe
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Mesic
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
  • Continue List   (13 more) ...
    • Grantsboro
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Merrimon
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
      • Merrimon is located in Carteret County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Merrimon
    • Reelsboro
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)

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

Newspapers Published in Merritt ...

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 124 newspapers that have been published in the area around Merritt.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Merritt, there are papers which were published within 18 miles [29 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Merritt.

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 Merritt:

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