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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 Lake Ronkonkoma (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 Lake Ronkonkoma. 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 Lake Ronkonkoma ...

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.

For example, a typical abbreviation for Lake Ronkonkoma: Lk. Ronkonkoma

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.

Lake Ronkonkoma is located in Suffolk County.

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

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

  • Suffolk County     (The home county of Lake Ronkonkoma)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Lake Ronkonkoma, with the one closest to Lake Ronkonkoma listed first.
    • Lake Grove
      (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
    • Nesconset
      (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
    • Ronkonkoma
      (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Centereach
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Islandia
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
    • The Branch
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
      • The Branch is located in Suffolk County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for The Branch
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,789 people
      • The Branch has also been known as:
      • Village of the Branch
    • Saint James
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Holbrook
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Hauppauge
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
    • Smithtown
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
    • Bohemia
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • Central Islip
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Nassau County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Lake Ronkonkoma, with the one closest to Lake Ronkonkoma listed first.
    • Farmingdale
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
    • South Farmingdale
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
      • South Farmingdale is located in Nassau County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Farmingdale
    • Old Bethpage
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
    • Woodbury
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
    • Laurel Hollow
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
      • Laurel Hollow is located in Nassau County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Laurel Hollow
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,027 people
    • Plainview
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
    • Swedetown Village
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
      • Swedetown Village is located in Nassau County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Swedetown Village
    • East Massapequa
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
      • East Massapequa is located in Nassau County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for East Massapequa
    • Massapequa Park
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
    • North Massapequa
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
      • North Massapequa is located in Nassau County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Massapequa
    • Bethpage
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
    • Cove Neck
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
      • Cove Neck is located in Nassau County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cove Neck
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 299 people
  • Westchester County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Lake Ronkonkoma, with the one closest to Lake Ronkonkoma listed first.
    • Milton
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
      • Milton is located in Westchester County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Milton
    • Port Chester
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
    • Rye
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
      • Rye is located in Westchester County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rye
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 15,634 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Rye <1>
  • Fairfield County (CT)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Lake Ronkonkoma, with the one closest to Lake Ronkonkoma listed first.
    • Black Rock
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
      • Black Rock is located in Fairfield County (CT)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Black Rock
    • Fairfield
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
    • Southport
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
    • Compo
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
      • Compo is located in Fairfield County (CT)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Compo
    • Greens Farms
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Rowayton
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Westport
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
      • Westport is located in Fairfield County (CT)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Westport
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 28,444 people
    • Darien
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
      • Darien is located in Fairfield County (CT)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Darien
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 21,693 people
    • East Norwalk
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
      • East Norwalk is located in Fairfield County (CT)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for East Norwalk
    • Norwalk
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
      • Norwalk is located in Fairfield County (CT)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Norwalk
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 88,655 people
    • Saugatuck
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
      • Saugatuck is located in Fairfield County (CT)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Saugatuck
    • South Norwalk
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
      • South Norwalk is located in Fairfield County (CT)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Norwalk
  • New Haven County (CT)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Lake Ronkonkoma, with the one closest to Lake Ronkonkoma listed first.
    • Milford
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
      • Milford is located in New Haven County (CT)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Milford
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 54,781 people
    • Milford
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
      • Milford is located in New Haven County (CT)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Milford
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 53,259 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Milford <1>

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

Cemeteries Near Lake Ronkonkoma ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Lake Ronkonkoma.

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 Lake Ronkonkoma - one of the links might be able to help.

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Lake Ronkonkoma, with the one closest to Lake Ronkonkoma 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 Lake Ronkonkoma in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Lake Ronkonkoma.

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

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Lake Ronkonkoma ...

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 183 newspapers that have been published in the area around Lake Ronkonkoma.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Lake Ronkonkoma. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Lake Ronkonkoma and those printed in the larger area surrounding Lake Ronkonkoma.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 17 miles [27.4 km]<4> of Lake Ronkonkoma.

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 Lake Ronkonkoma:

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