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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 Lancaster (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 Lancaster. 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 southwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals and 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.

Lancaster is located in Erie 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 Erie County: Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Genesee, Niagara & Wyoming.

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

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

Cemeteries Near Lancaster ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Lancaster.

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

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

  • St. Marys Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
  • St. Augustines Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Augustines Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Augustines Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Transit Rural Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Transit Rural Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Transit Rural Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • St. Adalbert's Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Adalbert's Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Adalbert's Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • German Lutheran Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the German Lutheran Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the German Lutheran Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • John Wolf Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the John Wolf Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the John Wolf Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Powers Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Powers Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Powers Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • War of 1812 Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the War of 1812 Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the War of 1812 Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Harris Hill Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
  • St. Matthews Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
  • St. Johns Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
  • Angle Road Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Angle Road Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Angle Road Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Continue List   (369 more) ...
    • Union Cemetery
      (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Union Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Union Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • St. Michaels Cemetery
      (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Michaels Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Michaels Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Holy Sepulchre Cemetery
      (5 miles [8 km] to the west)

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.<5>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Lancaster had a population of 1,692 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Lancaster had a population of 10,064 people.

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

  • East Lancaster
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for East Lancaster have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for East Lancaster
    • East Lancaster is located in Erie County
  • Bowmansville
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
  • Blossom
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Elma
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
  • Spring Brook Station
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Spring Brook Station have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spring Brook Station
    • Spring Brook Station is located in Erie County
  • Town Line
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
  • Harris Hill
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
  • Cheektowaga
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
  • Forks
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Forks have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Forks
    • Forks is located in Erie County
  • Doyle
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Doyle have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Doyle
    • Doyle is located in Erie County
  • Gardenville
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Gardenville have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gardenville
    • Gardenville is located in Erie County
  • East Seneca
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for East Seneca have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for East Seneca
    • East Seneca is located in Erie County
  • Continue List   (19 more) ...
    • Spring Brook
      (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Elma Center
      (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Elma Center have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elma Center
      • Elma Center is located in Erie County
    • Looneyville
      (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Lancaster ...

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 320 newspapers that have been published in the area around Lancaster.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Lancaster. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Lancaster and those printed in the larger area surrounding Lancaster.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 15 miles [24.1 km]<6> of Lancaster.

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 professional and volunteer 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 Lancaster:

The official website for Lancaster: www.lancastervillage.org/

The official website for Erie County: www.erie.gov/

The official website for State of New York: https://www.ny.gov/

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>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.
<3>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.
<4>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.
<5>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 Lancaster, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<6>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Lancaster) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Lancaster. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 42.9004, Longitude: -78.6704    









 

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This page was last modified/updated: 29 Apr 2025