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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 Spafford (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 Spafford. 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 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.

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

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

Cemeteries Near Spafford ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Spafford.

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

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

  • Lewis Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Lewis Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Lewis Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Spafford Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Spafford Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Spafford Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Stanton Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Stanton Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Stanton Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Cold Brook Valley Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Cold Brook Valley Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Cold Brook Valley Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Otisco Valley Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Otisco Valley Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Otisco Valley Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • The West Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for The West Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for The West Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Wilcox Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Wilcox Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Wilcox Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Seven Day Baptist Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Seven Day Baptist Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Seven Day Baptist Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Brook Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Brook Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Brook Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Bromley Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Bromley Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Bromley Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Vesper Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Vesper Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Vesper Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Borodino Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Borodino Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Borodino Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Continue List   (477 more) ...
    • New Hope Cemetery
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the New Hope Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the New Hope Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • James Cemetery
      (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the James Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the James Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Kelloggsville Cemetery
      (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Kelloggsville Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Kelloggsville 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.<4>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Spafford had a population of 361 people in 1895 with a post office and no railroad service.

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

  • Glen Haven
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Glen Haven have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Glen Haven
    • Glen Haven is located in Cayuga County
  • South Spafford
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for South Spafford have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Spafford
    • South Spafford is located in Onondaga County
  • Otisco Valley
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
  • Otisco
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
  • New Hope
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
  • Kelloggsville
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
  • Sempronius
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
  • Amber
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Amber have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Amber
    • Amber is located in Onondaga County
  • Scott
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
  • Borodino
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Borodino have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Borodino
    • Borodino is located in Onondaga County
  • East Scott
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for East Scott. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for East Scott
    • East Scott is located in Cortland County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to East Scott
    • From Spafford to East Scott
  • Tully Lake Park
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Tully Lake Park have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tully Lake Park
    • Tully Lake Park is located in Onondaga County
  • Continue List   (16 more) ...

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

Newspapers Published in Spafford ...

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 39 newspapers that have been published in the area around Spafford.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Spafford, there are papers which were published within 15 miles [24.1 km]<5>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Spafford.

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 Spafford:

Unfortunately, we don't know of a website for Spafford. 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>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 Spafford, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<5>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Spafford) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Spafford. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 42.8043, Longitude: -76.2649       In this case, the coordinates for Spafford have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 29 Apr 2025