RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Oregon >> Jackson County >> Williams Creek >> Genealogy HelperIndex...

Our Genealogy Helper

Introduction ...

So far, we found very little information about Williams Creek. The little that we've found leads us believe that the community is historic.<1>

We've added Williams Creek to our Gazetteer with the hope that we can develop more information. If you can help us with Williams Creek, please Contact Us.

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 Williams Creek (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 Williams Creek. 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 Williams Creek ...

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 occur.

  • A typical abbreviation for Williams Creek: Williams Crk. (or less commonly used: Williams Ck. or Williams Cr.)
  • While the name of this community is Williams Creek, be aware that it's the common practice of mapmakers to remove the apostrophe from possessive names<2>. So Williams Creek may originally have been William's Creek.

    Sometimes the trailing 's' might be dropped altogether, in which case Williams Creek might be written as William Creek.

You might be interested in other communities that are also named Williams Creek. More information can be found on our Tidbits & Trivia Page for Williams Creek.

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 doctors and 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.

Although our information shows that the community of Williams Creek is historic, it would have been located within present day Jackson County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Jackson County: Siskiyou (CA), Douglas, Josephine & Klamath.

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

  • Jackson County     (The home county of Williams Creek)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Williams Creek, with the one closest to Williams Creek listed first.
    • Provolt
      (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
      • Provolt is located in Jackson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Provolt
    • Applegate
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
    • Ruch
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
    • Rogue River
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
    • Rock Point ‑ Historic
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
      • Rock Point is located in Jackson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rock Point
    • Buncom
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Buncom is located in Jackson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Buncom
    • Jacksonville
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
    • Gold Hill
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Sterlingville ‑ Historic
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
      • Sterlingville is located in Jackson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sterlingville
    • Central Point
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Copper ‑ Historic
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
      • Copper is located in Jackson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Copper
    • Medford
      (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
  • Josephine County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Williams Creek, with the one closest to Williams Creek listed first.
    • Williams
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Murphy
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
    • New Hope
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
      • New Hope is located in Josephine County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for New Hope
    • Fruitdale
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Fruitdale is located in Josephine County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fruitdale
    • Grants Pass
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Redwood
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
      • Redwood is located in Josephine County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Redwood
    • Wilderville
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Merlin
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Selma
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
    • Althouse ‑ Historic
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Althouse is located in Josephine County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Althouse
    • Three Pines
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
      • Three Pines is located in Josephine County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Three Pines
    • Kerby
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
  • Siskiyou County (CA)

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

Cemeteries Near Williams Creek ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Williams Creek.

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.

Although we don't have the information ourselves, if you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our list of websites on our Genealogy Helper Page for Williams Creek - one of the links might be able to help.

If not found below, our Cemetery List for Williams Creek covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

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

  • Missouri Flat Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
  • Gotcher Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Sparlin Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Hartley Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
  • Logtown Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Logtown Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Logtown Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located less than 2 miles<4> to the northeast of Ruch.
    • The Logtown Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Log Town Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #39053 <5>
  • Foots Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Woodville Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
  • Tokay Heights Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
  • Jacksonville Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
  • Hays Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Hays - Gall Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Steamboat Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
  • Continue List   (45 more) ...
    • Hillcrest Memorial Park
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
    • Sterling Cemetery
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
    • Sterlingville Cemetery
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)

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.

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

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

  • Applegate
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
  • Williams
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Draper ‑ Historic
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Draper is located in Jackson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Draper
  • Murphy
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
  • Rock Point ‑ Historic
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Rock Point is located in Jackson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rock Point
  • Steamboat
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
    • Steamboat is located in Jackson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Steamboat
  • Grants Pass
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
  • Jacksonville
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
  • Gold Hill
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
  • Wilderville
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
  • Central Point
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Tolo
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Tolo is located in Jackson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tolo
  • Continue List   (13 more) ...
    • Medford
      (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
    • Wimer
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
      • Wimer is located in Jackson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wimer
    • Table Rock
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
      • Table Rock is located in Jackson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Table Rock

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

Newspapers Published in Williams Creek ...

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 51 newspapers that have been published in the area around Williams Creek.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Williams Creek, there are papers which were published within 26 miles [41.8 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Williams Creek.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first turn to 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 Williams Creek:

Footnotes ...

<1>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 Williams Creek, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<2>It's generally believed that possessive apostrophes are removed to prevent confusion on maps where the apostrophe may be confused with a cartographic symbol. While this is generally true, it's not uncommon to find possessive apostrophes in administrative names (such as towns or counties).
<3>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<4>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- Williams Creek) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<5>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.