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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 Hess Road (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 Hess Road. 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 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.

Hess Road is located in Niagara 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 Niagara County: Erie, Genesee & Orleans.

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

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

Cemeteries Near Hess Road ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Hess Road.

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

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

  • Appleton Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
  • Hess Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
  • West Somerset Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the West Somerset Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the West Somerset Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • West Somerset Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the West Somerset Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the West Somerset Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Sawyer Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Sawyer Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Sawyer Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Lakeview Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Lakeview Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Lakeview Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • St. Charles Borromeo Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Corwin Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Smiths Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Smiths Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Smiths Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Quaker Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • 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.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Quaker Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • 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.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • West Lake Road Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the West Lake Road Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the West Lake Road Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Continue List   (250 more) ...
    • St. Bridgets Cemetery
      (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Bridgets Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Bridgets Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Wright's Corners Cemetery
      (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Wright's Corners Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Wright's Corners Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Somerset Cemetery
      (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)

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, Hess Road had railroad service and no post office.

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

  • North Hartland
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
  • West Somerset
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for West Somerset have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West Somerset
    • West Somerset is located in Niagara County
  • Newfane
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
  • South Somerset
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for South Somerset have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Somerset
    • South Somerset is located in Niagara County
  • Olcott
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Olcott have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Olcott
    • Olcott is located in Niagara County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Olcott <2>
  • Barker
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Barker have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Barker
    • Barker is located in Niagara County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 504 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Barker <2>
  • Coomer
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
  • Hartland
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
  • Somerset
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
  • Wrights Corners
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
  • East Wilson
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for East Wilson have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for East Wilson
    • East Wilson is located in Niagara County
  • Warrens Corners
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Continue List   (15 more) ...
    • Orangeport
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Orangeport have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Orangeport
      • Orangeport is located in Niagara County
    • Gasport
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Reynales Basin
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Reynales Basin have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Reynales Basin
      • Reynales Basin is located in Niagara County

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

Newspapers Published in Hess Road ...

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 129 newspapers that have been published in the area around Hess Road.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Hess Road, there are papers which were published within 21 miles [33.8 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Hess Road.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first visit 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 Hess Road:

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

The official website for Niagara County: www.niagaracounty.com/

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>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- Hess Road) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Hess Road. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 43.3087, Longitude: -78.6490       In this case, the coordinates for Hess Road have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<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 Hess Road, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 29 Apr 2025