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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 Smyrna (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 Smyrna. 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 southeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors and hospitals were in the next county to the east. 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 east 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.

Smyrna is located in Chenango 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 Chenango County: Broome, Cortland, Delaware, Madison & Otsego.

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

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

Cemeteries Near Smyrna ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Smyrna.

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 Smyrna - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • West End Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the West End Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the West End Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Smyrna East Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Smyrna East Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Smyrna East Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Reynolds Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Reynolds Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Reynolds Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Stover Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Stover Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Stover Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Sherburne West Hill Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Sherburne West Hill Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Sherburne West Hill Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Wilcok Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Wilcok Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Wilcok Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • St. Malachy Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Malachy Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Malachy Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Quarter Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Quarter Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Quarter Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Earlville Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
  • North Side Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the North Side Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the North Side Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Southside Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Southside Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Southside Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • North Norwich Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the North Norwich Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the North Norwich Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Continue List   (438 more) ...
    • Harrisville Cemetery
      (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Harrisville Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Harrisville Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • East Hill Cemetery
      (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the East Hill Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the East Hill Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Bonney Cemetery
      (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Bonney Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Bonney Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> 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 Smyrna had a population of 681 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Smyrna had a population of 215 people.

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

  • Sherburne Four Corners
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Sherburne Four Corners have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sherburne Four Corners
    • Sherburne Four Corners is located in Chenango County
  • Sherburne
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
  • Earlville
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Earlville have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Earlville
    • Earlville is located in Madison County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 796 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Earlville <1>
  • Beaver Meadow
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
  • Plymouth
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
  • North Norwich
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
  • Kirk
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Kirk. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kirk
    • Kirk is located in Chenango County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Kirk
    • From Smyrna to Kirk
  • Poolville
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Poolville have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Poolville
    • Poolville is located in Madison County
  • South Plymouth
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for South Plymouth have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Plymouth
    • South Plymouth is located in Chenango County
  • Lebanon
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Lebanon have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lebanon
    • Lebanon is located in Madison County
  • Randallsville
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
  • Otselic
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
  • Continue List   (15 more) ...
    • North Pharsalia
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for North Pharsalia have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Pharsalia
      • North Pharsalia is located in Chenango County
    • South Hamilton
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Otselic Center
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Smyrna ...

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 119 newspapers that have been published in the area around Smyrna.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Smyrna. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Smyrna and those printed in the larger area surrounding Smyrna.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 20 miles [32.2 km]<6> of Smyrna.

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 Smyrna:

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 Smyrna, 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- Smyrna) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Smyrna. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 42.6872, Longitude: -75.5707