RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of New York >> Erie County >> Cheektowaga >> Genealogy HelperIndex...










Learn About
The Commemorative
Quarter for
New York

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 Cheektowaga (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 Cheektowaga. 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.

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 northeast 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 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 east 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.

Cheektowaga is located in Erie 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 Erie County: Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Genesee, Niagara & Wyoming.

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

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

Cemeteries Near Cheektowaga ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Cheektowaga.

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Cheektowaga, with the one closest to Cheektowaga 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.<5>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Cheektowaga had a population of 592 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service.

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

  • Forks
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Forks have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Forks
    • Forks is located in Erie County
  • Sloan
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Sloan have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sloan
    • Sloan is located in Erie County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 3,522 people
  • Doyle
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Doyle have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Doyle
    • Doyle is located in Erie County
  • Winchester
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Winchester have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Winchester
    • Winchester is located in Erie County
  • Gardenville
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Gardenville have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gardenville
    • Gardenville is located in Erie County
  • West Seneca
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
  • Snyder
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Snyder have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Snyder
    • Snyder is located in Erie County
  • Blossom
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
  • Lancaster
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
  • Bowmansville
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
  • Eggertsville
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Eggertsville have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eggertsville
    • Eggertsville is located in Erie County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Eggertsville <1>
  • Williamsville
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Williamsville have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Williamsville
    • Williamsville is located in Erie County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 5,171 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Williamsville <1>
  • Continue List   (17 more) ...
    • Ebenezer
      (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Ebenezer. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ebenezer
      • Ebenezer is located in Erie County
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Ebenezer
      • From Cheektowaga to Ebenezer
    • East Seneca
      (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for East Seneca have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for East Seneca
      • East Seneca is located in Erie County
    • Spring Brook Station
      (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Spring Brook Station have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spring Brook Station
      • Spring Brook Station is located in Erie County

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Cheektowaga ...

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 338 newspapers that have been published in the area around Cheektowaga.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Cheektowaga. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Cheektowaga and those printed in the larger area surrounding Cheektowaga.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 15 miles [24.1 km]<6> of Cheektowaga.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first visit 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 Cheektowaga:

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

The official website for Erie County: www.erie.gov/

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>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>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.
<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 Cheektowaga, 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- Cheektowaga) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Cheektowaga. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 42.9040, Longitude: -78.7543    









 

Copyright 2025
All Rights Reserved

Thank you for visiting our website.

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