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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 Watervale (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 Watervale. 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.

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

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

Cemeteries Near Watervale ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Watervale.

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

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

  • Baker Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Baker Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Baker Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Dodge Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Dodge Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Dodge Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Pompey Center Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Pompey Center Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Pompey Center Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Bush Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Bush Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Bush Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Pompey Hill Protestant Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Pompey Hill Protestant Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Pompey Hill Protestant Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Pompey Hill RC Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Pompey Hill RC Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Pompey Hill RC Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Bethel Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Bethel Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Bethel Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Oran Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Oran Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Oran Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Christ Church Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
  • Manlius Village Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Manlius Village Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Manlius Village Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Clark Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Clark Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Clark Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Pease Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Pease Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Pease Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Continue List   (441 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.<5>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Watervale had a population of 218 people in 1895 with a post office and no railroad service.

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

  • Pompey Center
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Pompey Center have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pompey Center
    • Pompey Center is located in Onondaga County
  • Pompey
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Pompey have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pompey
    • Pompey is located in Onondaga County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Pompey <2>
  • Oran
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Oran have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oran
    • Oran is located in Onondaga County
  • Manlius
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
  • Jamesville
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
  • Fayetteville
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Fayetteville have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fayetteville
    • Fayetteville is located in Onondaga County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 4,028 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Fayetteville <2>
  • Rippleton
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Cazenovia
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Cazenovia have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cazenovia
    • Cazenovia is located in Madison County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,843 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Cazenovia <2>
  • LaFayette
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
  • Collingwood
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Collingwood have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Collingwood
    • Collingwood is located in Onondaga County
  • Fabius
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
  • Bingley
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
  • Continue List   (18 more) ...

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

Newspapers Published in Watervale ...

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 185 newspapers that have been published in the area around Watervale.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Watervale, there are papers which were published within 16 miles [25.7 km]<6>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Watervale.

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 professional and volunteer 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 Watervale:

Unfortunately, we don't know of a website for Watervale. 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>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.
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<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 Watervale, 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 obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Watervale) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Watervale. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 42.9500, Longitude: -75.9822    









 

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This page was last modified/updated: 29 Apr 2025