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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 Somerset (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 Somerset. 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 hospitals and 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.

Somerset is located in Niagara 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 Niagara County: Erie, Genesee & Orleans.

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

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

Cemeteries Near Somerset ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Somerset.

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

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

  • Quaker Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Quaker Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Quaker Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Quaker Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Quaker Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Quaker Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Somerset Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
  • West Somerset Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the West Somerset Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the West Somerset Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • West Somerset Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the West Somerset Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the West Somerset Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Sawyer Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Sawyer Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Sawyer Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Somerset Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Somerset Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Somerset Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • St. Patricks Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Patricks Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Patricks Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Appleton Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Hess Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
  • North Ridgeway Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the North Ridgeway Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the North Ridgeway Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Smiths Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Smiths Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Smiths Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Continue List   (219 more) ...
    • Hartland Central Cemetery
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Hartland Central Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Hartland Central Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Morehouse Cemetery
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Morehouse Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Morehouse Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Johnsons Creek Baptist Cemetery
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Johnsons Creek Baptist Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Johnsons Creek Baptist 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.<6>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Somerset had a population of 623 people in 1895 with a post office and no railroad service.

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

  • Barker
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Barker have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Barker
    • Barker is located in Niagara County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 504 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Barker <2>
  • West Somerset
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for West Somerset have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West Somerset
    • West Somerset is located in Niagara County
  • South Somerset
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for South Somerset have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Somerset
    • South Somerset is located in Niagara County
  • North Hartland
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Millers
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Millers. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Millers
    • Millers is located in Niagara County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Millers
    • From Somerset to Millers
  • County Line
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
  • Hess Road
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Hess Road. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hess Road
    • Hess Road is located in Niagara County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Hess Road
    • From Somerset to Hess Road
  • North Ridgeway
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for North Ridgeway have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Ridgeway
    • North Ridgeway is located in Orleans County
  • Hartland
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
  • Johnson Creek
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Johnson Creek have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Johnson Creek
    • Johnson Creek is located in Niagara County
  • Newfane
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Jeddo
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
  • Continue List   (15 more) ...
    • Lyndonville
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
    • Olcott
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Olcott have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Olcott
      • Olcott is located in Niagara County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Olcott <2>
    • Reynales Basin
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Reynales Basin have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Reynales Basin
      • Reynales Basin is located in Niagara County

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Somerset ...

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 110 newspapers that have been published in the area around Somerset.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Somerset. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Somerset and those printed in the larger area surrounding Somerset.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 24 miles [38.6 km]<4> of Somerset.

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 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 Somerset:

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

The official website for Niagara County: www.niagaracounty.com/

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 '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- Somerset) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Somerset. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 43.3474, Longitude: -78.5557    
<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 Somerset, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 29 Apr 2025