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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 Briery Branch (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 Briery Branch. 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 Briery Branch ...

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 Briery Branch: Briery Br. (or less commonly used: Briery Brnch.)

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.

Briery Branch is located in Rockingham County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Rockingham County: Albemarle, Augusta, Greene, Page, Shenandoah, Hardy (WV) & Pendleton (WV).

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

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

Cemeteries Near Briery Branch ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Briery Branch.

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Briery Branch, with the one closest to Briery Branch 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.<4>

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

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

  • Ottobine
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
  • Clover Hill
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
  • Sangerville
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Sangerville have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sangerville
    • Sangerville is located in Augusta County
  • Spring Creek
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
  • Lilly
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
  • Rushville
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Rushville. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<1>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rushville
    • Rushville is located in Rockingham County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Rushville
    • From Briery Branch to Rushville
  • Rawley Springs
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Rawley Springs have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rawley Springs
    • Rawley Springs is located in Rockingham County
  • Mount Solon
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
  • Bridgewater
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Hinton
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
  • Dayton
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
  • Dale Enterprise
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Dale Enterprise have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dale Enterprise
    • Dale Enterprise is located in Rockingham County
  • Continue List   (13 more) ...
    • Mount Clinton
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Mount Clinton have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mount Clinton
      • Mount Clinton is located in Rockingham County
    • Moscow
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Moscow have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Moscow
      • Moscow is located in Augusta County
    • Parnassus
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)

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

Newspapers Published in Briery Branch ...

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 78 newspapers that have been published in the area around Briery Branch.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Briery Branch, there are papers which were published within 19 miles [30.6 km]<5>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Briery Branch.

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 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 Briery Branch:

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

The official website for Rockingham County: www.co.rockingham.va.us/

The official website for State of Virginia: https://www.virginia.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>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.
<3>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<4>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 Briery Branch, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<5>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 from Point A (ie- Briery Branch) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Briery Branch. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 38.4352, Longitude: -79.0796    









 

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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: 31 Mar 2025