RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of New York >> Onondaga County >> Sentinel Heights >> Genealogy HelperIndex...










Learn About
The Commemorative
Quarter for
New York

The Commemorative Quarter for New York





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 Sentinel Heights (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 Sentinel Heights. 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 Sentinel Heights ...

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 Sentinel Heights: Sentinel Hts. (in Canada, 'Hgts.' is the more common abbreviation.)

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

Sentinel Heights is located in Onondaga 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 Onondaga County: Cayuga, Cortland, Madison & Oswego.

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

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

Cemeteries Near Sentinel Heights ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Sentinel Heights.

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

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

  • Pioneer Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Pioneer Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Pioneer Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Pine Grove Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Pine Grove Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Pine Grove Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Webb Hollow Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Webb Hollow Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Webb Hollow Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • DeWitt Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the DeWitt Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the DeWitt Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Onondaga Nation Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
  • Budlong Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Budlong Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Budlong Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Houghtaling - Bush Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Houghtaling - Bush Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Houghtaling - Bush Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Onondaga Valley Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Cardiff Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Cardiff Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Cardiff Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • LaFayette Rural Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the LaFayette Rural Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the LaFayette Rural Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Spoor Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Spoor Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Spoor Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Bush Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Bush Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Bush Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Continue List   (476 more) ...

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>

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

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

  • Onondaga Castle
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Onondaga Castle have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Onondaga Castle
    • Onondaga Castle is located in Onondaga County
  • LaFayette
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
  • Jamesville
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
  • Cardiff
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
  • South Onondaga
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for South Onondaga have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Onondaga
    • South Onondaga is located in Onondaga County
  • Collingwood
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Collingwood have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Collingwood
    • Collingwood is located in Onondaga County
  • Pompey
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Pompey have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pompey
    • Pompey is located in Onondaga County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Pompey <2>
  • Watervale
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
  • De Witt
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
  • Cedarvale
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Cedarvale have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cedarvale
    • Cedarvale is located in Onondaga County
  • Syracuse
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
  • Manlius
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Continue List   (16 more) ...
    • Navarino
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Navarino have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Navarino
      • Navarino is located in Onondaga County
    • Otisco
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Pompey Center
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Pompey Center have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pompey Center
      • Pompey Center is located in Onondaga County

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

Newspapers Published in Sentinel Heights ...

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 205 newspapers that have been published in the area around Sentinel Heights.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Sentinel Heights, there are papers which were published within 13 miles [20.9 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Sentinel Heights.

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 Sentinel Heights:

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

The official website for Onondaga County: www.ongov.net/

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 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Sentinel Heights) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Sentinel Heights. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 42.9500, Longitude: -76.1151    
<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 Sentinel Heights, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

Copyright 2025
All Rights Reserved

Thank you for visiting our website.

In closing, please keep in mind that we can not guarantee the accuracy or timeliness of the information on this website, so use with care. We encourage you to double-check the information that is critical to you.

If you've found an error or have additional information that you would like to share, please don't hesitate to write: Click here to contact us.

This page was last modified/updated: 29 Apr 2025