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A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Virginia >> Sussex County >> Mason >> Genealogy HelperIndex...

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 Mason (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 Mason. 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 southwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors were in the next county to the west. Almost all of the nearby churches and cemeteries were in the county to the south.

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 south 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.

Mason is located in Sussex 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 Sussex County: Dinwiddie, Greensville, Prince George, Southampton & Surry.

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

  • Sussex County     (The home county of Mason)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Mason, with the one closest to Mason listed first.
    • Henry
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
    • Grizzard
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Yale
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Sussex
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Stony Creek
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
    • Waverly
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Wakefield
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
  • Brunswick County
  • Dinwiddie County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Mason, with the one closest to Mason listed first.
    • Waldemar ‑ Historic
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
      • Waldemar is located in Dinwiddie County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Waldemar
    • Rowanta
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
    • Laird ‑ Historic
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
      • Laird is located in Dinwiddie County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Laird
    • Borthwick ‑ Historic
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
      • Borthwick is located in Dinwiddie County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Borthwick
    • McKenney
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Maitland Village
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
      • Maitland Village is located in Dinwiddie County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Maitland Village
    • Oldenplace ‑ Historic
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Oldenplace is located in Dinwiddie County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oldenplace
  • Emporia City
  • Franklin City
  • Greensville County
  • Isle of Wight County
  • Prince George County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Mason, with the one closest to Mason listed first.
    • Talpa ‑ Historic
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
      • Talpa is located in Prince George County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Talpa
    • Derby ‑ Historic
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
      • Derby is located in Prince George County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Derby
  • Southampton County
  • Suffolk City
  • Halifax County (NC)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Mason, with the one closest to Mason listed first.
    • Roanoke Rapids
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Belmont
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Belmont is located in Halifax County (NC)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Belmont
    • South Weldon
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
      • South Weldon is located in Halifax County (NC)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Weldon
    • Weldon
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Weldon is located in Halifax County (NC)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Weldon
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,456 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Weldon <1>
    • South Rosemary
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
      • South Rosemary is located in Halifax County (NC)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Rosemary
  • Hertford County (NC)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Mason, with the one closest to Mason listed first.
    • Barretts Crossroads
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Como
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Como is located in Hertford County (NC)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Como
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 82 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Como <1>
    • Murfreesboro
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Northampton County (NC)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Mason, with the one closest to Mason listed first.
    • Margarettsville
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
      • Margarettsville is located in Northampton County (NC)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Margarettsville
    • Pleasant Hill
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Seaboard
      (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
      • Seaboard is located in Northampton County (NC)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Seaboard
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 541 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Seaboard <1>
    • Severn
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Severn is located in Northampton County (NC)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Severn
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 238 people
    • Pendleton
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
      • Pendleton is located in Northampton County (NC)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pendleton
    • Conway
      (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
      • Conway is located in Northampton County (NC)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Conway
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 721 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Conway <1>
    • Garysburg
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
    • Gaston
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
    • Jackson
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
    • Lasker
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
      • Lasker is located in Northampton County (NC)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lasker
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 106 people
    • Potecasi
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
    • Henrico
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)

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

Cemeteries Near Mason ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Mason.

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

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Mason, with the one closest to Mason 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>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that in 1895, Mason had railroad service and no post office.

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

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

Newspapers Published in Mason ...

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 5 newspapers that have been published in the area around Mason.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Mason, there are papers which were published within 15 miles [24.1 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Mason.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we 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 Mason:

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>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- Mason) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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 Mason, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.