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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 Elkdale (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 Elkdale. 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 southeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors 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.

Elkdale is located in Cattaraugus 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 Cattaraugus County: Allegany, Chautauqua, Erie, Wyoming, McKean (PA) & Warren (PA).

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

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

Cemeteries Near Elkdale ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Elkdale.

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

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

  • Annis Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
  • Crawford Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
  • Little Valley Rural Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Little Valley Rural Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Little Valley Rural Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Wildwood Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
  • Calvary Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
  • Ellicott Street Catholic Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Ellicott Street Catholic Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Ellicott Street Catholic Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Kill Buck Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Kill Buck Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Kill Buck Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Green Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Green Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Green Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Chamberlain Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Chamberlain Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Chamberlain Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jefferson Street Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Jefferson Street Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Jefferson Street Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Sunset Hill Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
  • Niles Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Niles Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Niles Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Continue List   (213 more) ...
    • Maple Grove Cemetery
      (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Maple Grove Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Maple Grove Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Holy Cross Cemetery
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Holy Cross Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Holy Cross Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Bowen Cemetery
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Bowen Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Bowen Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> 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.<5>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that in 1895, Elkdale had a post office and no railroad service.

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

  • Little Valley
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Salamanca
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
  • Shongo
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Shongo have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shongo
    • Shongo is located in Cattaraugus County
  • Kill Buck
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
  • Great Valley
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
  • Ellicottville
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
  • Red House
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Red House have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Red House
    • Red House is located in Cattaraugus County
  • Eddyville
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Eddyville. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eddyville
    • Eddyville is located in Cattaraugus County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Eddyville
    • From Elkdale to Eddyville
  • Napoli
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Napoli have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Napoli
    • Napoli is located in Cattaraugus County
  • Carrollton
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Carrollton. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Carrollton
    • Carrollton is located in Cattaraugus County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Carrollton
    • From Elkdale to Carrollton
  • New Albion
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for New Albion have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for New Albion
    • New Albion is located in Cattaraugus County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for New Albion <2>
  • Cold Spring
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Cold Spring have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cold Spring
    • Cold Spring is located in Cattaraugus County
  • Continue List   (16 more) ...
    • South Carrollton
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for South Carrollton have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Carrollton
      • South Carrollton is located in Cattaraugus County
    • Cattaraugus
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Cattaraugus have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cattaraugus
      • Cattaraugus is located in Cattaraugus County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 900 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Cattaraugus <2>
    • East Randolph
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for East Randolph. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for East Randolph
      • East Randolph is located in Cattaraugus County
      • Estimated population in 2012: 615 people
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to East Randolph
      • From Elkdale to East Randolph

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

Newspapers Published in Elkdale ...

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 64 newspapers that have been published in the area around Elkdale.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Elkdale, there are papers which were published within 20 miles [32.2 km]<6>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Elkdale.

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 Elkdale:

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

The official website for Cattaraugus County: www.co.cattaraugus.ny.us/

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

Footnotes ...

<1>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.
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<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 Elkdale, 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' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Elkdale) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Elkdale. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 42.2152, Longitude: -78.7537    









 

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This page was last modified/updated: 29 Apr 2025