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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 Port Elizabeth (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 Port Elizabeth. 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 Port Elizabeth ...

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 have occurred.

For example, a typical abbreviation for Port Elizabeth: Prt. Elizabeth

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.

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 hospitals 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.

Port Elizabeth is located in Cumberland County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Cumberland County: Atlantic, Cape May, Gloucester & Salem.

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

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

Cemeteries Near Port Elizabeth ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Port Elizabeth.

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 Port Elizabeth covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Port Elizabeth, with the one closest to Port Elizabeth 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.<6>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Port Elizabeth had a population of 488 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service.

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

  • Bricksboro
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Bricksboro have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bricksboro
    • Bricksboro is located in Cumberland County
  • Mauricetown
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
  • Manumuskin
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Manumuskin have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Manumuskin
    • Manumuskin is located in Cumberland County
  • Haleyville
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Dorchester
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
  • Mauricetown Station
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Mauricetown Station have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mauricetown Station
    • Mauricetown Station is located in Cumberland County
  • Leesburg
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
  • Menantico
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Menantico have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Menantico
    • Menantico is located in Cumberland County
  • Halberton
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Halberton have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Halberton
    • Halberton is located in Cumberland County
  • Port Norris
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Port Norris have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Port Norris
    • Port Norris is located in Cumberland County
  • Bivalve
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Bivalve. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bivalve
    • Bivalve is located in Cumberland County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Bivalve
    • From Port Elizabeth to Bivalve
  • Maurice River
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Maurice River have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Maurice River
    • Maurice River is located in Cumberland County
  • Continue List   (14 more) ...
    • Heislerville
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Heislerville have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Heislerville
      • Heislerville is located in Cumberland County
    • Delmont
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
    • Millville
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Millville have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Millville
      • Millville is located in Cumberland County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 27,025 people

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

Newspapers Published in Port Elizabeth ...

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 54 newspapers that have been published in the area around Port Elizabeth.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Port Elizabeth, there are papers which were published within 18 miles [29 km]<5>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Port Elizabeth.

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 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 Port Elizabeth:

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

The official website for Cumberland County: www.co.cumberland.nj.us/

The official website for State of New Jersey: https://www.nj.gov/

Footnotes ...

<1>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.
<2>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.
<3>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<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>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- Port Elizabeth) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Port Elizabeth. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 39.3120, Longitude: -74.9812    
<6>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 Port Elizabeth, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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In closing, please keep in mind that we can not guarantee the accuracy or timeliness of the information on this website, so use with care. We encourage you to double-check the information that is critical to you.

If you've found an error or have additional information that you would like to share, please don't hesitate to write: Click here to contact us.

This page was last modified/updated: 28 Apr 2025