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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 Center Valley (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 Center Valley. 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 Center Valley ...

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 Center Valley: Center Vly. (or less commonly used: Center Vally. or Center Vlly.)

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 southeast 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 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 east 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.

Center Valley is located in Otsego 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 Otsego County: Chenango, Delaware, Herkimer, Madison, Montgomery & Schoharie.

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

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

Cemeteries Near Center Valley ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Center Valley.

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 Center Valley covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

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

  • Sissum Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Sissum Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Sissum Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Winnie Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Winnie Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Winnie Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • South Valley Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the South Valley Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the South Valley Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Leesville Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Leesville Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Leesville Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Roseboom Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Roseboom Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Roseboom Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Dorloo Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Dorloo Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Dorloo Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Beekman Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Beekman Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Beekman Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Cherry Valley Village Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Cherry Valley Village Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Cherry Valley Village Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • McFee Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the McFee Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the McFee Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Clock Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Clock Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Clock Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Peoples Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
  • Ferris Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Ferris Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Ferris Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Continue List   (500 more) ...

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.<5>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Center Valley had a population of 107 people in 1895 with a post office and no railroad service.

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

  • South Valley
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
  • Roseboom
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
  • Pleasant Brook
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Seward
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
  • Sharon Springs
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Sharon Springs have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sharon Springs
    • Sharon Springs is located in Schoharie County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 527 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Sharon Springs <3>
  • Cherry Valley
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Cherry Valley have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cherry Valley
    • Cherry Valley is located in Otsego County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 483 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Cherry Valley <3>
  • Sharon Center
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Sharon Center have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sharon Center
    • Sharon Center is located in Schoharie County
  • Ames
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Ames have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ames
    • Ames is located in Montgomery County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 139 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Ames <3>
  • Buel
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
  • Sprout Brook
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
  • Salt Springville
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Salt Springville have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Salt Springville
    • Salt Springville is located in Montgomery County
  • Sharon
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Sharon have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sharon
    • Sharon is located in Schoharie County
  • Continue List   (17 more) ...
    • Middlefield Center
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Decatur
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
    • West Richmondville
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for West Richmondville have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West Richmondville
      • West Richmondville is located in Schoharie County

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

Newspapers Published in Center Valley ...

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 55 newspapers that have been published in the area around Center Valley.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Center Valley, there are papers which were published within 17 miles [27.4 km]<6>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Center Valley.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we like to 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 Center Valley:

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

The official website for Otsego County: www.otsegocounty.com/

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

Footnotes ...

<1>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.
<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>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>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 Center Valley, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<6>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- Center Valley) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Center Valley. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 42.7577, Longitude: -74.6858    









 

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This page was last modified/updated: 29 Apr 2025