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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 Cats Bridge (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 Cats Bridge. 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 Cats Bridge ...

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 Cats Bridge: Cats Brg. (or less commonly used: Cats Brdg. or Cats Brdge.)
  • While the name of this community is Cats Bridge, be aware that it's the common practice of mapmakers to remove the apostrophe from possessive names<1>. So Cats Bridge may originally have been Cat's Bridge.

    Sometimes the trailing 's' might be dropped altogether, in which case Cats Bridge might be written as Cat Bridge.

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 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.

Cats Bridge is located in Accomack 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 Accomack County: Somerset (MD), Lancaster, Middlesex, Northampton & Northumberland.

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

  • Accomack County     (The home county of Cats Bridge)
  • Lancaster County
    • Westland
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Westland have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Westland
      • Westland is located in Lancaster County
  • Mathews County
  • Middlesex County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Cats Bridge, with the one closest to Cats Bridge listed first.
    • Stingray Point
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
    • Sandy Bottom ‑ Historic
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Sandy Bottom have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sandy Bottom
      • Sandy Bottom is located in Middlesex County
  • Northampton County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Cats Bridge, with the one closest to Cats Bridge listed first.
    • Exmore
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Wardtown
      (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Wardtown. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<4>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wardtown
      • Wardtown is located in Northampton County
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Wardtown
      • From Cats Bridge to Wardtown
    • Nassawadox
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Marionville
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Jamesville
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Pleasant Cove Village
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Pleasant Cove Village have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pleasant Cove Village
      • Pleasant Cove Village is located in Northampton County
    • Birdsnest
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Sheps End
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Bridgetown
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Bridgetown. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<4>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bridgetown
      • Bridgetown is located in Northampton County
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Bridgetown
      • From Cats Bridge to Bridgetown
    • Machipongo
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Eastville
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Pat Town
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Pat Town have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pat Town
      • Pat Town is located in Northampton County
  • Somerset County (MD)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Cats Bridge, with the one closest to Cats Bridge listed first.
    • Crisfield
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
    • Lawsonia
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Lawsonia have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lawsonia
      • Lawsonia is located in Somerset County (MD)
    • Daugherty Town
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Daugherty Town have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Daugherty Town
      • Daugherty Town is located in Somerset County (MD)

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

Cemeteries Near Cats Bridge ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Cats Bridge.

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 Cats Bridge covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Cats Bridge, with the one closest to Cats Bridge 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.<6>

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

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

  • Exmore
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Mappsburg
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Mappsburg have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mappsburg
    • Mappsburg is located in Accomack County
  • Painter
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
  • Belle Haven
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
  • Hadlock
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Hadlock have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hadlock
    • Hadlock is located in Northampton County
  • Trower
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Trower have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Trower
    • Trower is located in Accomack County
  • Keller
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
  • Wardtown
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Wardtown. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<4>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wardtown
    • Wardtown is located in Northampton County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Wardtown
    • From Cats Bridge to Wardtown
  • Pungoteague
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Pungoteague have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pungoteague
    • Pungoteague is located in Accomack County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Pungoteague <3>
  • Craddockville
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Craddockville have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Craddockville
    • Craddockville is located in Accomack County
  • Davis Wharf
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Davis Wharf have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Davis Wharf
    • Davis Wharf is located in Accomack County
  • Nassawadox
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Continue List   (13 more) ...

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

Newspapers Published in Cats Bridge ...

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 17 newspapers that have been published in the area around Cats Bridge.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Cats Bridge, there are papers which were published within 23 miles [37 km]<7>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Cats Bridge.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we begin with 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 Cats Bridge:

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

The official website for Accomack County: www.co.accomack.va.us/

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>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>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.
<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 Cats Bridge, 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 obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Cats Bridge) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Cats Bridge. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 37.5518, Longitude: -75.7816    









 

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This page was last modified/updated: 31 Mar 2025