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A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
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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 South Amboy (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 South Amboy. 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 South Amboy ...

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 occur.

For example, a typical abbreviation for South Amboy: S. Amboy

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 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 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.

South Amboy is located in Middlesex County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Middlesex County: Mercer, Monmouth, Somerset, Union & Richmond (NY).

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

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

Cemeteries Near South Amboy ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of South Amboy.

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 South Amboy - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • St. Marys Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
  • Christ Church Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
  • Sacred Heart Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
  • Beth Israel Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Christ Church Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Hebrew Fraternity Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
  • St. Stephens Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
  • St. Marys Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
  • Alpine Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
  • United Hebrew Association Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
  • St. Stanislaus Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Calvary Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Continue List   (421 more) ...
    • St. Nicholas Cemetery
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Bethel Cemetery
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Ukrainian Cemetery
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)

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 South Amboy had a population of 4,330 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, South Amboy had a population of 9,095 people.

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

  • Morgan
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
    • Morgan is located in Middlesex County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Morgan
  • Perth Amboy
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
  • Crossmans
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
    • Crossmans is located in Middlesex County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crossmans
  • Sayreville Junction
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Ernston
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Tottenville
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Tottenville is located in Richmond County (NY)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tottenville
  • Fords
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Fords is located in Middlesex County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fords
  • Richmond Valley
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Richmond Valley is located in Richmond County (NY)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Richmond Valley
  • Maurer
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Maurer is located in Middlesex County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Maurer
  • Woodbridge
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Woodbridge is located in Middlesex County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Woodbridge
  • Cliffwood
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
  • Pleasant Plains
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Pleasant Plains is located in Richmond County (NY)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pleasant Plains
  • Continue List   (18 more) ...
    • Sewaren
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
      • Sewaren is located in Middlesex County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sewaren
    • Boynton Beach
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Princes Bay
      (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
      • Princes Bay is located in Richmond County (NY)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Princes Bay

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of South Amboy ...

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 101 newspapers that have been published in the area around South Amboy.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of South Amboy. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of South Amboy and those printed in the larger area surrounding South Amboy.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 9 miles [14.5 km]<3> of South Amboy.

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 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 South Amboy:

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 South Amboy, 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' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- South Amboy) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.