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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 Port Gibson (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 Port Gibson. 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 Port Gibson ...

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.

For example, a typical abbreviation for Port Gibson: Prt. Gibson

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 doctors 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.

Port Gibson is located in Ontario 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 Ontario County: Livingston, Monroe, Seneca, Steuben, Wayne & Yates.

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

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

Cemeteries Near Port Gibson ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Port Gibson.

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

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

  • Port Gibson Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Port Gibson Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Port Gibson Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Galloway Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Galloway Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Galloway Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Coopers Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Coopers Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Coopers Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Hopkins Burying Ground
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Hopkins Burying Ground
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Hopkins Burying Ground have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Riverview Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Riverview Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Riverview Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • East Newark Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
  • Newark Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
  • Culver Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
  • Parker Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Parker Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Parker Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • East Palmyra Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
  • Palmyra Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
  • St. Anne's RC Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Continue List   (409 more) ...
    • Sunnyside Cemetery
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Sunnyside Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Sunnyside Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Five Waters Cemetery
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Five Waters Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Five Waters Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Marbletown Cemetery
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Marbletown Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Marbletown Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.

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 Port Gibson had a population of 330 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service.

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

  • East Palmyra
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
  • Newark
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
  • Manchester Center
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Manchester Center have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Manchester Center
    • Manchester Center is located in Ontario County
  • Palmyra
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
  • Manchester
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
  • Clifton Springs
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Clifton Springs have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clifton Springs
    • Clifton Springs is located in Ontario County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,012 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Clifton Springs <2>
  • Phelps Junction
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Phelps Junction have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Phelps Junction
    • Phelps Junction is located in Ontario County
  • Shortsville
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Fairville
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Walworth Station
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Walworth Station have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Walworth Station
    • Walworth Station is located in Wayne County
  • Marion
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
  • Phelps
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Continue List   (16 more) ...
    • Macedon
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Macedon have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Macedon
      • Macedon is located in Wayne County
      • Estimated population in 2017: 1,462 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Macedon <2>
    • Orleans
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Orleans have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Orleans
      • Orleans is located in Ontario County
    • Lyons
      (8 miles [12.9 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 Port Gibson. See our List of 1890's Communities around Port Gibson.

Newspapers Published in Port Gibson ...

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 121 newspapers that have been published in the area around Port Gibson.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Port Gibson, there are papers which were published within 18 miles [29 km]<6>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Port Gibson.

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 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 Port Gibson:

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

The official website for Ontario County: www.co.ontario.ny.us/

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>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 Port Gibson, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<6>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- Port Gibson) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Port Gibson. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 43.0373, Longitude: -77.1564    









 

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This page was last modified/updated: 29 Apr 2025