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 Bells Mill (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 Bells Mill. 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 Bells Mill ...
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 Bells Mill: Bells Ml. (or less commonly used: Bells Mll.)
- While the name of this community is Bells Mill, be aware that it's the common practice of mapmakers to remove the apostrophe from possessive names<1>. So Bells Mill may originally have been Bell's Mill.
Sometimes the trailing 's' might be dropped altogether, in which case Bells Mill might be written as Bell Mill.
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.
Newspapers Published in Bells Mill ...
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 160 newspapers that have been published in the area around Bells Mill.
Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Bells Mill, there are papers which were published within 9 miles [14.5 km]<2>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Bells Mill.
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 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 Bells Mill:
- Websites specific to Virginia
- Jump to Cyndi's List
- Jump to Family Search
- Jump to Genealogy Trails
- Website for the Library of Virginia
- Cemetery Information and Directories for Virginia
- Cemetery Junction: Cemeteries of Virginia
- Cyndi's List
- Cemeteries of Virginia
- FamilySearch.org: Cemeteries of Virginia
- Find-A-Grave: Home Page
- Interment.net
- Cemeteries of Virginia
Cemeteries Near Bells Mill ...
Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Bells Mill.
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 Bells Mill covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.
The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Bells Mill, with the one closest to Bells Mill listed first.
- Sargent March Corfrew Family Cemetery
(Less than 2 miles to the east)- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Sargent March Corfrew Family Cemetery
- Memorial Gardens
(Less than 2 miles to the southeast)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Memorial Gardens have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Memorial Gardens
- Berea Cemetery
(Less than 2 miles to the southeast)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Berea Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Berea Cemetery
- Roosevelt Memorial Park
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Roosevelt Memorial Park
- Mt. Olive Cemetery
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Mt. Olive Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Mt. Olive Cemetery
- Workmans Circle Cemetery
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Workmans Circle Cemetery
- Bainbridge & Elco Cemetery
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Bainbridge & Elco Cemetery
- Wallace Family Cemetery
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)- The Wallace Family Cemetery has also been known as:
- Deep Creek Lock Park Cemetery
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Wallace Family Cemetery
- Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2283847 <4>
- Bethel Cemetery
(5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Bethel Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Bethel Cemetery
- All Saint Catholic Cemetery
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)- To give a relative sense of its location, the All Saint Catholic Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located in Portsmouth.
- The All Saint Catholic Cemetery has also been known as:
- Portsmouth Catholic Cemetery
- St. Paul's Cemetery
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the All Saint Catholic Cemetery
- Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #52028 <4>
- Good Hope Cemetery
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Good Hope Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Good Hope Cemetery
- Pleasant Grove Cemetery
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Pleasant Grove Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Pleasant Grove Cemetery
- Continue List (118 more) ...
- Jewish Cemetery
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Jewish Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Jewish Cemetery
- Lincoln Memorial Cemetery
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Lincoln Memorial Cemetery
- Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #51000 <4>
- Trinity Cemetery
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Trinity Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Trinity Cemetery
- Jewish Cemetery
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 Bells Mill in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Bells Mill.
These communities are listed based on their distance from Bells Mill, with the one closest to Bells Mill listed first.
- Berkley
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the north) - Elizabeth Park
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Elizabeth Park have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elizabeth Park
- Elizabeth Park is located in Norfolk City
- Brambleton
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Brambleton have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brambleton
- Brambleton is located in Norfolk City
- Kempsville
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Kempsville have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kempsville
- Kempsville is located in Virginia Beach City
- Norfolk
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Norfolk
- Norfolk is located in Norfolk City
- Population from the 2020 Census: 242,803 people
- Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Norfolk <6>
- Mapleton
(11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast) - Thalia
(11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast) - Lamberts Point
(11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Lamberts Point have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lamberts Point
- Lamberts Point is located in Norfolk City
- Shoulders Hill
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shoulders Hill
- Shoulders Hill is located in Suffolk City
- Lynnhaven
(13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast) - Deanes
(13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest) - Moyock
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Moyock
- Moyock is located in Currituck County (NC)
- Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Moyock <6>
- Continue List (16 more) ...
- Pungo
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pungo
- Pungo is located in Virginia Beach City
- Nimmo
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the east) - London Bridge
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for London Bridge have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for London Bridge
- London Bridge is located in Virginia Beach City
- Pungo
We've also created an expanded list of communities that existed in the 1890's and were located in the area around Bells Mill. See our List of 1890's Communities around Bells Mill.
Off-the-Road Links ...
Unfortunately, we don't know of a website for Bells Mill. If you can help, please contact us through our Feedback Page.
The official website for State of Virginia: https://www.virginia.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> | 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- Bells Mill) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Bells Mill. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 36.7235, Longitude: -76.2747 In this case, the coordinates for Bells Mill have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS). |
| <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 Bells Mill, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy. |
| <6> | While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program. |