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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 Foss (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 Foss. 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 southeast 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 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 east 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.

Foss is located in Tillamook County.

To see how the shape of Oregon's counties have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Tillamook County: Clatsop, Columbia, Lincoln, Polk, Washington & Yamhill.

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

  • Tillamook County     (The home county of Foss)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Foss, with the one closest to Foss listed first.
    • Wheeler
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Wheeler have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wheeler
      • Wheeler is located in Tillamook County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 446 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Wheeler <2>
    • Nehalem
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Manzanita
      (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Manzanita have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Manzanita
      • Manzanita is located in Tillamook County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 670 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Manzanita <2>
    • Nedonna Beach
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Rockaway Beach
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Twin Rocks
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Hobsonville
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Hobsonville. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hobsonville
      • Hobsonville is located in Tillamook County
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Hobsonville
      • From Foss to Hobsonville
    • Barview
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Garibaldi
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Garibaldi have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Garibaldi
      • Garibaldi is located in Tillamook County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 836 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Garibaldi <2>
    • Bay City
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Bay City have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bay City
      • Bay City is located in Tillamook County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,429 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Bay City <2>
    • Bayocean ‑ Historic
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Bayocean. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bayocean
      • Bayocean is located in Tillamook County
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Bayocean
      • From Foss to Bayocean
    • Jordan Creek
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Clatsop County
  • Columbia County
    • Keasey
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Keasey. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Keasey
      • Keasey is located in Columbia County
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Keasey
      • From Foss to Keasey
  • Washington County

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

Cemeteries Near Foss ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Foss.

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Foss, with the one closest to Foss 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 Foss in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Foss.

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

  • Nehalem
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
  • Hobsonville
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Hobsonville. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hobsonville
    • Hobsonville is located in Tillamook County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Hobsonville
    • From Foss to Hobsonville
  • Bay City
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Bay City have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bay City
    • Bay City is located in Tillamook County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,429 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Bay City <2>
  • Barnegat ‑ Historic
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Barnegat have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Barnegat
    • Barnegat is located in Tillamook County
  • Cannon Beach
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
  • Tillamook
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
  • Vinemaple
    (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Vinemaple. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Vinemaple
    • Vinemaple is located in Clatsop County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Vinemaple
    • From Foss to Vinemaple
  • Netarts
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
  • Seaside
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
  • Jewell
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Jewell. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jewell
    • Jewell is located in Clatsop County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Jewell
    • From Foss to Jewell
  • Melville
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Melville have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Melville
    • Melville is located in Clatsop County
  • Glenwood
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Glenwood have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Glenwood
    • Glenwood is located in Washington County
  • Continue List   (5 more) ...
    • Keasey
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Keasey. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Keasey
      • Keasey is located in Columbia County
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Keasey
      • From Foss to Keasey
    • Beaver
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
    • Olney
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Olney have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Olney
      • Olney is located in Clatsop County

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

Newspapers Published in Foss ...

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 26 newspapers that have been published in the area around Foss.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Foss, there are papers which were published within 21 miles [33.8 km]<6>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Foss.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we start 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 Foss:

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

The official website for Tillamook County: www.co.tillamook.or.us/

The official website for State of Oregon: https://www.oregon.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 Foss, 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 from Point A (ie- Foss) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Foss. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 45.6949, Longitude: -123.8144    









 

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This page was last modified/updated: 29 Apr 2025