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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 Chester Gap (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 Chester Gap. 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.

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.

Chester Gap is located in Rappahannock 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 Rappahannock County: Culpeper, Fauquier, Madison, Page & Warren.

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

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

Cemeteries Near Chester Gap ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Chester Gap.

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 Chester Gap covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

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

  • Williams Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Williams Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Williams Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Russell Family Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Russell Family Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Russell Family Cemetery came from an uncertain source and they still need to be verified:<4>
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2358236 <5>
  • Rockland Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Rockland Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Rockland Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Hardscrabble Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Hardscrabble Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Hardscrabble Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Good Hope Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Good Hope Cemetery
    • 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.
  • Prospect Hill Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Prospect Hill Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Prospect Hill Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • The Ramey Graveyard
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for The Ramey Graveyard
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for The Ramey Graveyard have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Marshall Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Marshall Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Marshall Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Leeds Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Leeds Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Leeds Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Strother - Green Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Bennetts Chapel Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Howellsville Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Howellsville Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Howellsville Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Continue List   (173 more) ...
    • Hall Cemetery
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Hall Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Hall Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Rockland Cemetery
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
    • Rockland Community Cemetery
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Rockland Community Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Rockland Community Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> 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 Chester Gap in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Chester Gap.

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

  • Happy Creek
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Happy Creek have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Happy Creek
    • Happy Creek is located in Warren County
  • Browntown
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Browntown have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Browntown
    • Browntown is located in Warren County
  • Linden
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Linden have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Linden
    • Linden is located in Warren County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Linden <2>
  • Front Royal
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
  • Flint Hill
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Flint Hill have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Flint Hill
    • Flint Hill is located in Rappahannock County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Flint Hill <2>
  • Front Royal Junction
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Front Royal Junction have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Front Royal Junction
    • Front Royal Junction is located in Warren County
  • Hume
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Hume have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hume
    • Hume is located in Fauquier County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Hume <2>
  • Riverton
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Limeton
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
  • Cedarville
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
  • Markham
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
  • Washington
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
  • Continue List   (13 more) ...
    • Buckton
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Buckton have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Buckton
      • Buckton is located in Warren County
    • Bentonville
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
    • Vernon Mills
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Vernon Mills have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Vernon Mills
      • Vernon Mills is located in Fauquier County

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

Newspapers Published in Chester Gap ...

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 22 newspapers that have been published in the area around Chester Gap.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Chester Gap, there are papers which were published within 15 miles [24.1 km]<7>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Chester Gap.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first visit 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 Chester Gap:

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

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>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>If we found a location and have questions about the accuracy of our information, we will simply say that the marker is 'in the vicinity'. We are not confident about the location and the position of our marker is only a rough guide. If we have too many doubts about the location, we will not include it in our database.
<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 Chester Gap, 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 from Point A (ie- Chester Gap) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Chester Gap. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 38.8527, Longitude: -78.1368    









 

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This page was last modified/updated: 31 Mar 2025