Our Genealogy Helper
Introduction ...
Although we found mention of Bona Vista during our research, we really don't have any information about it.<1> Given the context of how Bona Vista was mentioned, we believe that it was a community rather than a locale or some type of landmark. We have done a cursory search and if it was a community, we haven't been able to find any evidence that it still exists..
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 Bona Vista (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 Bona Vista. 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 Bona Vista ...
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 Bona Vista: Bona Vis.
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.
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 helpful 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 Bona Vista:
- Websites specific to Ontario
- Cemetery Information and Directories for Ontario
Cemeteries Near Bona Vista ...
Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Bona Vista.
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 Bona Vista covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.
The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Bona Vista, with the one closest to Bona Vista listed first.
- Holy Trinity Cemetery
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
- Dwight Union Cemetery
(5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
- Hutcheson Memorial Cemetery
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
- Mizpah Cemetery
(11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
- Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for the Mizpah Cemetery. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Mizpah Cemetery
- Langford Cemetery
(15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
- St. Andrew's Presbyterian Cemetery
(15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
- St. Andrew's United Church Cemetery
(15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
- Moores Cemetery
(16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
- Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for the Moores Cemetery. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
- To give a relative sense of its location, the Moores Cemetery is located between<4> the communities of Beatrice and Bracebridge. The cemetery lies 3 miles [4.8 km]<5> to the southeast of Beatrice.
- The Moores Cemetery has also been known as:
- Moore Pioneer Cemetery
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Moores Cemetery
- Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2388820 <2>
- George Kirk Memorial Cemetery
(16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
- Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for the George Kirk Memorial Cemetery. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
- To give a relative sense of its location, the George Kirk Memorial Cemetery is located 2 miles [3.2 km]<5> to the south of Bracebridge.
- The George Kirk Memorial Cemetery has also been known as:
- Kirk Cemetery
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the George Kirk Memorial Cemetery
- Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2337292 <2>
- Bracebridge United Church Cemetery
(19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
- Yearley Cemetery
(19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
- St. Paul's Anglican Cemetery
(20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
- Continue List (15 more) ...
- St. Mark's Anglican Cemetery
(22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
- Twelve Mile Lake United Church Cemetery
(24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
- Baptist Cemetery
(25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
We've also created an expanded list of communities that existed in the 1890's and were located in the area around Bona Vista. See our List of 1890's Communities around Bona Vista.
Off-the-Road Links ...
The official website for Province of Ontario: https://www.ontario.ca/
Footnotes ...
| <1> | If we encounter the name of what might be a community, our methodology is to add that name to our Gazetteer. For example, we might find a sentence like "He went north past Bona Vista and then turned east". While Bona Vista could be some kind of landmark, we think that it's more likely to be a community. We've added Bona Vista as a placeholder with the hope that we'll be able to add more information in the future.
Just as a reminder: Our definition of a community is rather broad and includes those places (or areas) where several families lived and had a name which identified that place. For example, you might hear somebody say that they are going over to Mile's to see Pete ... Mile's is just a gas station and a couple of homes at the crossroads. While it might not be on the map, everybody in the area knows it by that name.
Places of interest include buildings at a crossroad, several families clustered in a hollow or maybe the location of a way station. It also includes places like mines, lumber camps, ferry crossings, etc. The community might still exist, is now gone or only existed for just a short period of time.
Also keep in mind that Bona Vista could have been on the original document by mistake, misspelled, the original/alternate name of a community that we've listed elsewhere or was placed in the wrong . Sometimes a post office or train station would have a different name than the community where it's located, so two names might be referring to the same community - we're working to straighten it all out.
Since confusion between is common, we searched and weren't able to find another Ontario community named Bona Vista. |
| <2> | 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. |
| <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> | To help visualize the location of the cemetery, we've drawn a straight line between the communities of Beatrice and Bracebridge. The cemetery can be found near that line and roughly halfway between the two communities. Remember that this is just an approximate location. |
| <5> | Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a '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- Bona Vista) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Bona Vista. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 45.2611, Longitude: -79.0764 |