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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 Cooks Falls (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 Cooks Falls. 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 Cooks Falls ...

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.

While the name of this community is Cooks Falls, be aware that it's the common practice of mapmakers to remove the apostrophe from possessive names<1>. So Cooks Falls may originally have been Cook's Falls.

Sometimes the trailing 's' might be dropped altogether, in which case Cooks Falls might be written as Cook Falls.

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 northeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors and 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.

Cooks Falls is located in Delaware 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 Delaware County: Broome, Chenango, Greene, Otsego, Schoharie, Sullivan, Ulster & Wayne (PA).

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

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

Cemeteries Near Cooks Falls ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Cooks Falls.

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

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

  • Cooks Falls Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
  • Horton Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Horton Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Horton Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Riverview Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Riverview Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Riverview Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Bonaire Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Bonaire Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Bonaire Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Rickard Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Rickard Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Rickard Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Gould Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Gould Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Gould Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Rock Valley Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Rock Valley Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Rock Valley Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Gregorytown Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Gregorytown Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Gregorytown Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Long Flat Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Long Flat Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Long Flat Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • St. Mary's Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Mary's Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Mary's Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • East Branch Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the East Branch Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the East Branch Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Basket Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Basket Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Basket Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Continue List   (183 more) ...
    • Paige Cemetery
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Paige Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Paige Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • St. Aloysius Cemetery
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Aloysius Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Aloysius Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Harvard Cemetery
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Harvard Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Harvard Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<4> 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, Cooks Falls had railroad service and no post office.

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

  • Butternut Grove
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
  • Horton
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
  • Roscoe
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
  • Rockland
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Rockland have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rockland
    • Rockland is located in Sullivan County
  • Chiloway
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Chiloway. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chiloway
    • Chiloway is located in Delaware County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Chiloway
    • From Cooks Falls to Chiloway
  • Acidalia
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Goulds
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Goulds have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Goulds
    • Goulds is located in Delaware County
  • Rock Valley
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Peakville
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Peakville. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Peakville
    • Peakville is located in Delaware County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Peakville
    • From Cooks Falls to Peakville
  • Obernburg
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Obernburg have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Obernburg
    • Obernburg is located in Sullivan County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Obernburg <3>
  • Beaverkill
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
  • Mileses
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Mileses have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mileses
    • Mileses is located in Sullivan County
  • Continue List   (20 more) ...

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

Newspapers Published in Cooks Falls ...

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 60 newspapers that have been published in the area around Cooks Falls.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Cooks Falls, there are papers which were published within 22 miles [35.4 km]<7>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Cooks Falls.

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 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 Cooks Falls:

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

The official website for Delaware County: www.co.delaware.ny.us/

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

Footnotes ...

<1>It's generally believed that possessive apostrophes are removed to prevent confusion on maps where the apostrophe may be confused with a cartographic symbol. While this is generally true, it's not uncommon to find possessive apostrophes in administrative names (such as towns or counties).
<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>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<4>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.
<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 Cooks Falls, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<7>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Cooks Falls) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Cooks Falls. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 41.9501, Longitude: -74.9836    









 

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This page was last modified/updated: 29 Apr 2025