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A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
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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 Fort Niagara Beach (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 Fort Niagara Beach. 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 Fort Niagara Beach ...

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 occur.

For example, a typical abbreviation for Fort Niagara Beach: Ft. Niagara Bch.

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 southwest 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 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 west 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.

Fort Niagara Beach is located in Niagara County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Niagara County: Erie, Genesee & Orleans.

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

  • Niagara County     (The home county of Fort Niagara Beach)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Fort Niagara Beach, with the one closest to Fort Niagara Beach listed first.
    • Youngstown
      (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Harrison Grove
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
      • Harrison Grove is located in Niagara County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harrison Grove
    • Porter Center
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
      • Porter Center is located in Niagara County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Porter Center
    • Ransomville
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Lewiston
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
    • Model City
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Dickersonville
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Dickersonville is located in Niagara County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dickersonville
    • Varsity Village
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
      • Varsity Village is located in Niagara County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Varsity Village
    • Roosevelt Beach
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
      • Roosevelt Beach is located in Niagara County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Roosevelt Beach
    • Colonial Village
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
      • Colonial Village is located in Niagara County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Colonial Village
    • Pleasant Corners
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
      • Pleasant Corners is located in Niagara County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pleasant Corners
    • Pletchers Corners
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
      • Pletchers Corners is located in Niagara County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pletchers Corners
    • Pekin
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Pekin is located in Niagara County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pekin
  • Erie County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Fort Niagara Beach, with the one closest to Fort Niagara Beach listed first.
    • Grandyle Village
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
      • Grandyle Village is located in Erie County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grandyle Village
    • Tonawanda
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Ferry Village
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
      • Ferry Village is located in Erie County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ferry Village
    • Getzville
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Kenmore
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Amherst
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
    • Swormville
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
      • Swormville is located in Erie County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Swormville
    • Wolcottsburg
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
      • Wolcottsburg is located in Erie County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wolcottsburg
    • Williamsville
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Clarence Center
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Buffalo
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
    • Harris Hill
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Harris Hill is located in Erie County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harris Hill
    • Bowmansville
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Genesee County
    • Amherst
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
      • Amherst is located in Genesee County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Amherst
  • Orleans County
    • Jeddo
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
      • Jeddo is located in Orleans County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jeddo

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

Cemeteries Near Fort Niagara Beach ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Fort Niagara Beach.

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.

Although we don't have the information ourselves, if you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our list of websites on our Genealogy Helper Page for Fort Niagara Beach - one of the links might be able to help.

If not found below, our Cemetery List for Fort Niagara Beach covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Fort Niagara Beach, with the one closest to Fort Niagara Beach 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.<3>

While we didn't find Fort Niagara Beach in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Fort Niagara Beach.

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

  • Youngstown
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
  • Lewiston
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
  • Ransomville
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
  • Pekin
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Pekin is located in Niagara County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pekin
  • Niagara Falls
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
  • Sanborn
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
  • North Ridge
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
    • North Ridge is located in Niagara County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Ridge
  • South Wilson
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
    • South Wilson is located in Niagara County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Wilson
  • Wilson
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
  • La Salle
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
    • La Salle is located in Niagara County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for La Salle
  • Bergholtz
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Bergholtz is located in Niagara County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bergholtz
  • Shawnee
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Shawnee is located in Niagara County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shawnee
  • Continue List   (16 more) ...
    • Saint Johnsburg
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Saint Johnsburg is located in Niagara County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Saint Johnsburg
    • Warrens Corners
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
      • Warrens Corners is located in Niagara County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Warrens Corners
    • East Wilson
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
      • East Wilson is located in Niagara County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for East Wilson

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

Newspapers Published in Fort Niagara Beach ...

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 85 newspapers that have been published in the area around Fort Niagara Beach.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Fort Niagara Beach, there are papers which were published within 19 miles [30.6 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Fort Niagara Beach.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first turn to 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 Fort Niagara Beach:

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 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.
<3>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 Fort Niagara Beach, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<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 from Point A (ie- Fort Niagara Beach) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.