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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 Shirley (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 Shirley. 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 northeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors were in the next county to the east. 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 east 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.

Shirley 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 Shirley. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Shirley:

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

Cemeteries Near Shirley ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Shirley.

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

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

  • Friends Meetinghouse Burial Grounds
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Friends Meetinghouse Burial Grounds
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Friends Meetinghouse Burial Grounds have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Holy Spirit Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Holy Spirit Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Holy Spirit Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Huson Family Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Huson Family Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Huson Family Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Dittman Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Dittman Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Dittman Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Brant Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Brant Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Brant Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Versailles Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
  • Evergreen Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Evergreen Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Evergreen Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Holy Cross Lutheran Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Holy Cross Lutheran Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Holy Cross Lutheran Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Pine Hill Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
  • Pine Grove Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • 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.
  • Knight Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Knight Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Knight Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • St. Paul's Lutheran Church Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
  • Continue List   (258 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>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Shirley had a population of 173 people in 1895 with a post office and no railroad service.

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

  • North Collins
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for North Collins have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Collins
    • North Collins is located in Erie County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,194 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for North Collins <2>
  • Lawtons
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Lawtons have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lawtons
    • Lawtons is located in Erie County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Lawtons <2>
  • Langford
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Langford have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Langford
    • Langford is located in Erie County
  • Marshfield
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Marshfield have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Marshfield
    • Marshfield is located in Erie County
  • Pontiac
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
  • Versailles
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Versailles have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Versailles
    • Versailles is located in Cattaraugus County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Versailles <2>
  • Collins
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Collins have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Collins
    • Collins is located in Erie County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Collins <2>
  • Clarksburg
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Clarksburg have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clarksburg
    • Clarksburg is located in Erie County
  • Eden
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
  • Brant
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
  • Collins Center
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Collins Center have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Collins Center
    • Collins Center is located in Erie County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Collins Center <2>
  • New Oregon
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for New Oregon have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for New Oregon
    • New Oregon is located in Erie County
  • Continue List   (15 more) ...

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

Newspapers Published in Shirley ...

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 264 newspapers that have been published in the area around Shirley.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Shirley, there are papers which were published within 21 miles [33.8 km]<5>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Shirley.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we start with the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These helpful 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 Shirley:

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

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

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>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or 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- Shirley) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Shirley. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 42.5767, Longitude: -78.9137       In this case, the coordinates for Shirley have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<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 Shirley, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 29 Apr 2025