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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 Graftons Square (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 Graftons Square. 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 Graftons Square ...

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.

  • A typical abbreviation for Graftons Square: Graftons Sq. (or less commonly used: Graftons Sqr.)
  • While the name of this community is Graftons Square, be aware that it's the common practice of mapmakers to remove the apostrophe from possessive names<1>. So Graftons Square may originally have been Grafton's Square.

    Sometimes the trailing 's' might be dropped altogether, in which case Graftons Square might be written as Grafton Square.

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 northwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals were in the next county to the west. 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 west 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.

Graftons Square is located in Oswego 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 Oswego County: Cayuga, Jefferson, Lewis, Madison, Oneida & Onondaga.

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

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

Cemeteries Near Graftons Square ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Graftons Square.

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

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

  • Quaker Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Quaker Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Quaker Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Colosse Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Colosse Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Colosse Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Maple View Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Maple View Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Maple View Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Pleasant Lawn Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
  • Bidwell Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Bidwell Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Bidwell Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • St. Annes Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Annes Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Annes Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • French Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the French Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the French Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Maple Lawn Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Maple Lawn Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Maple Lawn Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Mexico Primitive Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Mexico Primitive Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Mexico Primitive Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Wright Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Wright Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Wright Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • McClelland Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the McClelland Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the McClelland Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Mexico Village Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Mexico Village Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Mexico Village Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Continue List   (264 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.<7>

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

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

  • Colosse
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Colosse have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Colosse
    • Colosse is located in Oswego County
  • Prattham
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
  • Parish
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
  • Dugway
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Dugway. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dugway
    • Dugway is located in Oswego County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Dugway
    • From Graftons Square to Dugway
  • Hastings
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
  • Mexico
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
  • Morse
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Morse have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Morse
    • Morse is located in Oswego County
  • Vermilion
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
  • Daysville
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
  • Texas
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Texas have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Texas
    • Texas is located in Oswego County
  • Arthur
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Arthur. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Arthur
    • Arthur is located in Oswego County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Arthur
    • From Graftons Square to Arthur
  • Clifford
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Clifford have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clifford
    • Clifford is located in Oswego County
  • Continue List   (14 more) ...
    • East Palermo
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for East Palermo have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for East Palermo
      • East Palermo is located in Oswego County
    • Little France
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Little France have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Little France
      • Little France is located in Oswego County
    • Palermo
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Palermo have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Palermo
      • Palermo is located in Oswego County

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

Newspapers Published in Graftons Square ...

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 75 newspapers that have been published in the area around Graftons Square.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Graftons Square, there are papers which were published within 18 miles [29 km]<5>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Graftons Square.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we begin 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 Graftons Square:

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

The official website for Oswego County: www.co.oswego.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>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 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>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 from Point A (ie- Graftons Square) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Graftons Square. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 43.4426, Longitude: -76.1509    
<6>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.
<7>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 Graftons Square, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 15 Jul 2025