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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 Blue 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 Blue 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 Blue 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 Blue Ridge: Blue Rdg. (or less commonly used: Blue Rdge. or Blue 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.

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 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.

Blue Ridge is located in Essex County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Essex County: Clinton, Franklin, Hamilton, Warren, Washington, Addison (VT) & Chittenden (VT).

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

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

Cemeteries Near Blue Ridge ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Blue 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 Blue Ridge covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

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

  • Schroon River Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Schroon River Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Schroon River Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Pine Ridge Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Pine Ridge Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Pine Ridge Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • North Hudson Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the North Hudson Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the North Hudson Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • St. Marys Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Federal Flat Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Federal Flat Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Federal Flat Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Newcomb Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Newcomb Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Newcomb Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • New Pottersville Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the New Pottersville Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the New Pottersville Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Old Pottersville Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Old Pottersville Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Old Pottersville Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Pottersville Cemetery (New)
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
  • Pottersville Cemetery (Old)
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
  • Fairview Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Fairview Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Fairview Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Spear Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Spear Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Spear Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Continue List   (133 more) ...
    • St. Patrick Cemetery
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Patrick Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Patrick Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • St.s Peter & Paul Cemetery
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St.s Peter & Paul Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St.s Peter & Paul Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Underwood Cemetery
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Underwood Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Underwood Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.

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 in 1895, Blue Ridge had a post office and no railroad service.

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

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

Newspapers Published in Blue 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 27 newspapers that have been published in the area around Blue Ridge.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Blue Ridge, there are papers which were published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Blue 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 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 Blue Ridge:

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

The official website for Essex County: www.co.essex.ny.us/

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

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>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>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.
<4>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- Blue Ridge) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Blue Ridge. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 43.9572, Longitude: -73.7850    
<5>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.
<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 Blue Ridge, 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: 29 Apr 2025