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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 Five Forks (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 Five Forks. 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 Five Forks ...

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.

For example, a typical abbreviation for Five Forks: Five Frks.

You might be interested in other communities that are also named Five Forks. More information can be found on our Tidbits & Trivia Page for Five Forks.

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.

Cemeteries Near Five Forks ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Five Forks.

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.

Although we don't have the information ourselves, if you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our list of websites on our Genealogy Helper Page for Five Forks - one of the links might be able to help.

If not found below, our Cemetery List for Five Forks covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

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

  • City Point National Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
  • Appomattox Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
  • St. Pauls Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
  • Mt. Sinai Memorial Park
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
  • Bermuda Memorial Park
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
  • Pleasant Grove Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
  • Harrison Grove Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
  • Bucher and Strachan Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
  • Walker Family Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
  • Merchants Hope Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
  • Vaughan - Eyler Family Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
  • Mt. Minnis Memorial Park
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
  • Continue List   (270 more) ...
    • Little Church Street Cemetery
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Peoples Memorial Cemetery
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Blandford Cemetery
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)

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.<3>

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

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

  • Shirley
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Shirley is located in Charles City County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shirley
  • Bermuda Hundred ‑ Historic
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Bermuda Hundred is located in Chesterfield County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bermuda Hundred
  • Meadowville
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Meadowville is located in Chesterfield County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Meadowville
  • Walthall
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Walthall is located in Chesterfield County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Walthall
  • Ettrick
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
  • Garysville
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
    • Garysville is located in Prince George County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Garysville
  • Pembroke
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Pembroke is located in Petersburg City
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pembroke
  • Westover
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
    • Westover is located in Charles City County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Westover
  • Chester
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Matoaca
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
    • Matoaca is located in Chesterfield County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Matoaca
  • Cotman ‑ Historic
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
    • Cotman is located in Henrico County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cotman
  • Newville
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Newville is located in Prince George County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Newville
  • Continue List   (17 more) ...
    • Varina Grove
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
      • Varina Grove is located in Henrico County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Varina Grove
    • Disputanta
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
    • Glendale
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
      • Glendale is located in Henrico County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Glendale

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

Newspapers Published in Five Forks ...

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 118 newspapers that have been published in the area around Five Forks.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Five Forks, 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 Five Forks.

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 websites either 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 Five Forks:

Footnotes ...

<1>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.
<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 from Point A (ie- Five Forks) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<3>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 Five Forks, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<4>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.