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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 Waterloo (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 Waterloo. 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 southwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most 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.

Waterloo is located in Seneca County and is the County Seat.

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 Seneca County: Cayuga, Ontario, Schuyler, Tompkins, Wayne & Yates.

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

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

Cemeteries Near Waterloo ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Waterloo.

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

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

  • Bear Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Bear Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Bear Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Maple Grove Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
  • Stark Street Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Stark Street Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Stark Street Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • St. Marys Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Marys Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Marys Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Kingdom Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Kingdom Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Kingdom Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jersalem Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Jersalem Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Jersalem Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Ovid Street Pioneers Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Ovid Street Pioneers Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Ovid Street Pioneers Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Springbrook Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Springbrook Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Springbrook Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Fox Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Fox Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Fox Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Hubbard Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Hubbard Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Hubbard Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Quaker Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Bowdish Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Bowdish Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Bowdish Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Continue List   (480 more) ...
    • Burgh Cemetery
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Burgh Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Burgh Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Restvale Cemetery
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • St. Columbkille Cemetery
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Columbkille Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Columbkille Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> 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 Waterloo had a population of 4,350 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Waterloo had a population of 4,864 people.

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

  • Seneca Falls
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
  • Geneva
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
  • MacDougall
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for MacDougall have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for MacDougall
    • MacDougall is located in Seneca County
  • Fayette
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Fayette have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fayette
    • Fayette is located in Seneca County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Fayette <1>
  • Canoga
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Cayuga
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Cayuga have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cayuga
    • Cayuga is located in Cayuga County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 516 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Cayuga <1>
  • Tyre
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Tyre. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tyre
    • Tyre is located in Seneca County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Tyre
    • From Waterloo to Tyre
  • West Junius
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Marengo
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Marengo have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Marengo
    • Marengo is located in Wayne County
  • Cayuga Junction
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Cayuga Junction have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cayuga Junction
    • Cayuga Junction is located in Cayuga County
  • Billsboro
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Billsboro. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Billsboro
    • Billsboro is located in Ontario County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Billsboro
    • From Waterloo to Billsboro
  • Union Springs
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Continue List   (21 more) ...

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Waterloo ...

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 159 newspapers that have been published in the area around Waterloo.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Waterloo. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Waterloo and those printed in the larger area surrounding Waterloo.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 18 miles [29 km]<6> of Waterloo.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first visit 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 Waterloo:

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

The official website for Seneca County: www.co.seneca.ny.us/

The official website for State of New York: https://www.ny.gov/

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>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.
<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>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 Waterloo, 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' (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- Waterloo) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Waterloo. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 42.9046, Longitude: -76.8628    









 

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This page was last modified/updated: 29 Apr 2025