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A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
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The Commemorative Quarter for New York





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 Bay Ridge (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 Bay Ridge. 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 Bay Ridge ...

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 Bay Ridge: Bay Rdg. (or less commonly used: Bay Rdge. or Bay Ridg.)

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.

Cemeteries Near Bay Ridge ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Bay Ridge.

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 Bay Ridge covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Bay Ridge, with the one closest to Bay Ridge 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 Bay Ridge had a population of 1,858 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service.

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

  • Fort Hamilton
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
  • Bensonhurst
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
  • Clifton
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Clifton have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clifton
    • Clifton is located in Richmond County
  • Rosebank
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Rosebank have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rosebank
    • Rosebank is located in Richmond County
  • Fort Wadsworth
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Fort Wadsworth have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fort Wadsworth
    • Fort Wadsworth is located in Richmond County
  • Bath Beach
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
  • New Utrecht
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for New Utrecht have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for New Utrecht
    • New Utrecht is located in Kings County
  • Parkville
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Parkville have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Parkville
    • Parkville is located in Kings County
  • Saint George
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Saint George have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Saint George
    • Saint George is located in Richmond County
  • Stapleton
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Stapleton have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stapleton
    • Stapleton is located in Richmond County
  • Grasmere
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Grasmere have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grasmere
    • Grasmere is located in Richmond County
  • Arrochar
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Arrochar have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Arrochar
    • Arrochar is located in Richmond County
  • Continue List   (16 more) ...

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

Newspapers Published in Bay Ridge ...

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 110 newspapers that have been published in the area around Bay Ridge.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Bay Ridge, there are papers which were published within 9 miles [14.5 km]<5>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Bay Ridge.

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 Bay Ridge:

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

The official website for State of New York: https://www.ny.gov/

Footnotes ...

<1>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.
<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>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 Bay Ridge, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<4>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.
<5>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Bay Ridge) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Bay Ridge. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 40.6279, Longitude: -74.0293    









 

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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: 10 Feb 2025