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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 Weston Mills (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 Weston Mills. 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.

Name Variations for Weston Mills ...

When searching records, keep in mind that names and their spelling can change over time. Our sources include documents like maps, railroad schedules, Travel, Express and Shipping Guides. Many of these documents date from the 1800's and it's common to find spelling differences.

Although we can't give a definitive list, hopefully the following will give you a feel for the variations that might have occurred.

For example, a typical abbreviation for Weston Mills: Weston Mls. (or less commonly used: Weston Mlls.)

If you have information about these names (such as the reason for the change, date of change, the origin of the name), please Contact Us.

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.

Weston Mills is located in Cattaraugus 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 Cattaraugus County: Allegany, Chautauqua, Erie, Wyoming, McKean (PA) & Warren (PA).

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

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

Cemeteries Near Weston Mills ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Weston Mills.

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

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

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>

While we didn't find Weston Mills in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Weston Mills.

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

  • Westons Mills
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Westons Mills have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Westons Mills
    • Westons Mills is located in Cattaraugus County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Westons Mills <2>
  • Portville
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Portville have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Portville
    • Portville is located in Cattaraugus County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 941 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Portville <2>
  • Olean
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
  • Four Mile
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Four Mile. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Four Mile
    • Four Mile is located in Cattaraugus County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Four Mile
    • From Weston Mills to Four Mile
  • Haymaker
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Haymaker have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Haymaker
    • Haymaker is located in McKean County (PA)
  • Haskell Flats
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Haskell Flats have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Haskell Flats
    • Haskell Flats is located in Cattaraugus County
  • Bullis Mills
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Bullis Mills have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bullis Mills
    • Bullis Mills is located in McKean County (PA)
  • Obi
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Obi have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Obi
    • Obi is located in Allegany County
  • Hinsdale
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Hinsdale have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hinsdale
    • Hinsdale is located in Cattaraugus County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Hinsdale <2>
  • Allegany
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Allegany have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Allegany
    • Allegany is located in Cattaraugus County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,685 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Allegany <2>
  • Ceres
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Ceres have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ceres
    • Ceres is located in Allegany County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Ceres <2>
  • West Clarksville
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
  • 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 Weston Mills. See our List of 1890's Communities around Weston Mills.

Newspapers Published in Weston Mills ...

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 83 newspapers that have been published in the area around Weston Mills.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Weston Mills, there are papers which were published within 18 miles [29 km]<6>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Weston Mills.

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 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 Weston Mills:

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

The official website for Cattaraugus County: www.co.cattaraugus.ny.us/

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>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 Weston Mills, 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- Weston Mills) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Weston Mills. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 42.0745, Longitude: -78.3749    









 

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In closing, please keep in mind that we can not guarantee the accuracy or timeliness of the information on this website, so use with care. We encourage you to double-check the information that is critical to you.

If you've found an error or have additional information that you would like to share, please don't hesitate to write: Click here to contact us.

This page was last modified/updated: 29 Apr 2025