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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 Bears Crossroads (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 Bears Crossroads. 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 Bears Crossroads ...

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.

  • A typical abbreviation for Bears Crossroads: Bears Xrds.
  • While the name of this community is Bears Crossroads, be aware that it's the common practice of mapmakers to remove the apostrophe from possessive names<1>. So Bears Crossroads may originally have been Bear's Crossroads.

    Sometimes the trailing 's' might be dropped altogether, in which case Bears Crossroads might be written as Bear Crossroads.

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 northwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals and doctors were in the next county to the west. 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 west 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.

Bears Crossroads is located in Cumberland County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Cumberland County: Adams, Dauphin, Franklin, Perry & York.

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

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

Cemeteries Near Bears Crossroads ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Bears Crossroads.

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

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

  • Prospect Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Prospect Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Prospect Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • John Graham Memorial Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the John Graham Memorial Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the John Graham Memorial Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Newville Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Newville Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Newville Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • McClures Gap Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the McClures Gap Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the McClures Gap Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Cumberland Valley Memorial Gardens
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
  • Westminister Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Westminister Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Westminister Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Union Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Union Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Union Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Green Spring Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Ashland Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Ashland Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Ashland Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Pioneer Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Pioneer Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Pioneer Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Mt. Holly Springs Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Mt. Holly Springs Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Mt. Holly Springs Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Cumberland County Home Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Cumberland County Home Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Cumberland County Home Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Continue List   (197 more) ...
    • Landisburg Cemetery
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Landisburg Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Landisburg Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Letort Cemetery
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
    • Hanna Cemetery
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Hanna Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Hanna Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.

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.<6>

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

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

  • Kerrsville
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Kerrsville have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kerrsville
    • Kerrsville is located in Cumberland County
  • Mount Rock
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Mount Rock have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mount Rock
    • Mount Rock is located in Cumberland County
  • Greason
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Greason have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Greason
    • Greason is located in Cumberland County
  • Plainfield
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
  • Newville
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Big Spring
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
  • Dickinson
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Dickinson have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dickinson
    • Dickinson is located in Cumberland County
  • Stoughstown
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Stoughstown have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stoughstown
    • Stoughstown is located in Cumberland County
  • Longsdorf
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Longsdorf have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Longsdorf
    • Longsdorf is located in Cumberland County
  • Huntsdale
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
  • Montsera
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Green Spring
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Green Spring have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Green Spring
    • Green Spring is located in Cumberland County
  • Continue List   (15 more) ...
    • Oakville
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Oakville have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oakville
      • Oakville is located in Cumberland County
    • Hays Grove
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Hays Grove have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hays Grove
      • Hays Grove is located in Cumberland County
    • Carlisle
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)

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

Newspapers Published in Bears Crossroads ...

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 42 newspapers that have been published in the area around Bears Crossroads.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Bears Crossroads, there are papers which were published within 17 miles [27.4 km]<7>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Bears Crossroads.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we like to start 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 Bears Crossroads:

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

The official website for Commonwealth of Pennsylvania: https://www.pa.gov/

Footnotes ...

<1>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).
<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 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.
<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.
<6>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 Bears Crossroads, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<7>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Bears Crossroads) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Bears Crossroads. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 40.1984, Longitude: -77.3399    









 

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This page was last modified/updated: 29 Apr 2025