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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 Grindstone (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 Grindstone. 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 hospitals 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.

Grindstone is located in Jefferson 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 Jefferson County: Lewis, Oswego & Saint Lawrence.

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

  • Jefferson County     (The home county of Grindstone)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Grindstone, with the one closest to Grindstone listed first.
    • Murray Isle
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Clayton
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Thousand Island Park
      (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
    • Omar
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
      • Omar is located in Jefferson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Omar
    • Depauville
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
    • La Fargeville
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Alexandria Bay
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
    • Orleans Four Corners
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
      • Orleans Four Corners is located in Jefferson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Orleans Four Corners
    • Browns Corners
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
      • Browns Corners is located in Jefferson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Browns Corners
    • Chaumont
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
    • Three Mile Bay
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
    • Cape Vincent
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Redwood
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
  • Saint Lawrence County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Grindstone, with the one closest to Grindstone listed first.
    • Schermerhorn Landing
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
      • Schermerhorn Landing is located in Saint Lawrence County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Schermerhorn Landing
    • Hammond
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
      • Hammond is located in Saint Lawrence County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hammond
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 270 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Hammond <1>
    • North Hammond
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
      • North Hammond is located in Saint Lawrence County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Hammond
    • Wegatchie
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
      • Wegatchie is located in Saint Lawrence County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wegatchie
    • Somerville
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
      • Somerville is located in Saint Lawrence County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Somerville
    • Brier Hill
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Elmdale
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
      • Elmdale is located in Saint Lawrence County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elmdale

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

Cemeteries Near Grindstone ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Grindstone.

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 Grindstone - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • Thurso Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
  • Gananoque Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
  • Willow Bank Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Willow Bank Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Willow Bank Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located 2 miles [3.2 km]<3> to the west of Gananoque (ON).
    • The Willow Bank Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Willowbank Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2146560 <2>
  • Cross Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Sand Bay Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
  • Trinity Anglican Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
  • St. Lawrence Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
  • Riverside Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
  • Marble Rock Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
  • Weaver Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
  • Corbin Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
  • St. Johns Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Continue List   (146 more) ...
    • Omar Cemetery
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
    • Dutch Cemetery
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Grove Cemetery
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)

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.<4>

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

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

  • Clayton
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
  • Thousand Island Park
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
  • Fishers Landing
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
  • Saint Lawrence
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Saint Lawrence is located in Jefferson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Saint Lawrence
  • Omar
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
    • Omar is located in Jefferson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Omar
  • Depauville
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
  • La Fargeville
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Alexandria Bay
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
  • Rosiere
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Rosiere is located in Jefferson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rosiere
  • Orleans Four Corners
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Orleans Four Corners is located in Jefferson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Orleans Four Corners
  • Cape Vincent
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Three Mile Bay
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
  • Continue List   (13 more) ...
    • Chaumont
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
    • Stone Mills
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Stone Mills is located in Jefferson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stone Mills
    • Plessis
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)

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

Newspapers Published in Grindstone ...

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 25 newspapers that have been published in the area around Grindstone.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Grindstone, there are papers which were published within 17 miles [27.4 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Grindstone.

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 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 Grindstone:

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>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Grindstone) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<4>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 Grindstone, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.