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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 Mount Aetna (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 Mount Aetna. 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 Mount Aetna ...

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 Mount Aetna: Mt. Aetna

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 southeast 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 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.

Mount Aetna is located in Berks 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 Berks County: Chester, Lancaster, Lebanon, Lehigh, Montgomery & Schuylkill.

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

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

Cemeteries Near Mount Aetna ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Mount Aetna.

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Mount Aetna, with the one closest to Mount Aetna 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>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Mount Aetna had a population of 421 people in 1895 with a post office and no railroad service.

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

  • Wintersville
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
  • Myerstown
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
  • Rehrersburg
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
  • Bethel
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
  • Crosskill Mills
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Crosskill Mills have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crosskill Mills
    • Crosskill Mills is located in Berks County
  • Greble
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
  • Mount Zion
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
  • Stouchsburg
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Stouchsburg have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stouchsburg
    • Stouchsburg is located in Berks County
  • Host
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Host have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Host
    • Host is located in Berks County
  • Hamlin
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Hamlin have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hamlin
    • Hamlin is located in Lebanon County
  • Prescott
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
  • Sheridan
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Sheridan. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<1>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sheridan
    • Sheridan is located in Lebanon County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Sheridan
    • From Mount Aetna to Sheridan
  • Continue List   (18 more) ...
    • Meckville
      (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
    • Reistville
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Reistville have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Reistville
      • Reistville is located in Lebanon County
    • Millbach
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Millbach have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Millbach
      • Millbach is located in Lebanon County

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

Newspapers Published in Mount Aetna ...

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 47 newspapers that have been published in the area around Mount Aetna.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Mount Aetna, there are papers which were published within 13 miles [20.9 km]<6>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Mount Aetna.

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 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 Mount Aetna:

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

The official website for Berks County: www.co.berks.pa.us/

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

Footnotes ...

<1>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.
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<3>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.
<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 Mount Aetna, 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 drawn from Point A (ie- Mount Aetna) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Mount Aetna. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 40.4191, Longitude: -76.2959    









 

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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