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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 Floris (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 Floris. 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 northwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals and doctors 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.

Floris is located in Fairfax County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Fairfax County: Charles (MD), Montgomery (MD), Prince George's (MD), Arlington, Falls Church City, Loudoun & Prince William.

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

  • Fairfax County     (The home county of Floris)
  • Alexandria City
    • The following are listed by their distance from Floris, with the one closest to Floris listed first.
    • Arlandria
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
    • Chinquapin Village
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
      • Chinquapin Village is located in Alexandria City
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chinquapin Village
    • Oakcrest
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Warwick Village
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
      • Warwick Village is located in Alexandria City
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Warwick Village
    • Alexandria
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
  • Arlington County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Floris, with the one closest to Floris listed first.
    • Williamsburg Village
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
      • Williamsburg Village is located in Arlington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Williamsburg Village
    • Garden City
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
      • Garden City is located in Arlington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Garden City
    • Arlington
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
    • Brandon Village
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
      • Brandon Village is located in Arlington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brandon Village
    • Buckingham
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
    • Cherrydale
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
    • Colonial Village
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
      • Colonial Village is located in Arlington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Colonial Village
    • Lyon Village
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
      • Lyon Village is located in Arlington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lyon Village
    • Riverwood
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
    • Arlington Village
      (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
      • Arlington Village is located in Arlington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Arlington Village
  • Clarke County
  • Fairfax City
  • Falls Church City
  • Fauquier County
  • Loudoun County
  • Manassas City
  • Manassas Park City
    • Manassas Park
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
  • Prince William County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Floris, with the one closest to Floris listed first.
    • Loch Lomond
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
      • Loch Lomond is located in Prince William County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Loch Lomond
    • Yorkshire Village
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
      • Yorkshire Village is located in Prince William County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Yorkshire Village
    • Yorkshire
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
      • Yorkshire is located in Prince William County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Yorkshire
    • Catharpin
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Sudley
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Sudley is located in Prince William County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sudley
    • West Gate
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
      • West Gate is located in Prince William County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West Gate
    • Bull Run
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Bull Run is located in Prince William County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bull Run
    • Crestwood Village
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Crestwood Village is located in Prince William County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crestwood Village
    • Iron Gate
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Iron Gate is located in Prince William County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Iron Gate
    • Bataan Village
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
      • Bataan Village is located in Prince William County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bataan Village
    • Buckhall
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
    • Gainesville
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Stafford County
    • Widewater Village at Stafford
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
  • Charles County (MD)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Floris, with the one closest to Floris listed first.
    • Riverview Village
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
      • Riverview Village is located in Charles County (MD)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Riverview Village
    • Indian Head
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Potomac Heights
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Potomac Heights is located in Charles County (MD)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Potomac Heights
    • South Hampton Village
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
      • South Hampton Village is located in Charles County (MD)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Hampton Village
    • Bryans Road
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Marbury
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Marbury is located in Charles County (MD)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Marbury
    • Mattawoman Village
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Mattawoman Village is located in Charles County (MD)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mattawoman Village
    • Pomonkey
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Freedom Village
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Freedom Village is located in Charles County (MD)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Freedom Village
  • Frederick County (MD)
  • Howard County (MD)
  • Montgomery County (MD)
  • Prince George's County (MD)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Floris, with the one closest to Floris listed first.
    • Chillum
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
    • Forest Heights
      (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
      • Forest Heights is located in Prince George's County (MD)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Forest Heights
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,558 people
    • Langley Park
      (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
    • Adelphi
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
    • Brentwood
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
      • Brentwood is located in Prince George's County (MD)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brentwood
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 3,439 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Brentwood <1>
    • Cottage City
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
      • Cottage City is located in Prince George's County (MD)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cottage City
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,355 people
    • Hyattsville
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
      • Hyattsville is located in Prince George's County (MD)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hyattsville
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 18,217 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Hyattsville <1>
    • Mount Rainier
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
    • North Brentwood
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
      • North Brentwood is located in Prince George's County (MD)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Brentwood
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 549 people
    • Oxon Hill
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
    • Fort Foote Village
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
      • Fort Foote Village is located in Prince George's County (MD)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fort Foote Village
    • Bladensburg
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
  • Jefferson County (WV)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Floris, with the one closest to Floris listed first.
    • Bloomery
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Kabletown
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)

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

Cemeteries Near Floris ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Floris.

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 Floris - one of the links might be able to help.

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Floris, with the one closest to Floris 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.<3>

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

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

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

Newspapers Published in Floris ...

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 20 newspapers that have been published in the area around Floris.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Floris, there are papers which were published within 8 miles [12.9 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Floris.

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 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 Floris:

Footnotes ...

<1>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<2>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.
<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 Floris, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<4>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Floris) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.