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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 Massanetta Springs (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 Massanetta Springs. 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 Massanetta Springs ...

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.

For example, a typical abbreviation for Massanetta Springs: Massanetta Spgs. (or less commonly used: Massanetta Spngs. or Massanetta Sprngs.)

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.

Massanetta Springs is located in Rockingham 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 Rockingham County: Albemarle, Augusta, Greene, Page, Shenandoah, Hardy (WV) & Pendleton (WV).

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

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

Cemeteries Near Massanetta Springs ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Massanetta Springs.

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 Massanetta Springs covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Massanetta Springs, with the one closest to Massanetta Springs 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, Massanetta Springs had a post office and no railroad service.

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

  • Peach Grove ‑ Historic
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Peach Grove have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Peach Grove
    • Peach Grove is located in Rockingham County
  • Keezletown
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
  • Cross Keys
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
  • Pleasant Valley
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Pleasant Valley have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pleasant Valley
    • Pleasant Valley is located in Rockingham County
  • Friedens
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Friedens have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Friedens
    • Friedens is located in Rockingham County
  • Goods Mill
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
  • Montevideo
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
  • North River
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
  • McGaheysville
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
  • Mount Crawford
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Paulington ‑ Historic
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Paulington have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Paulington
    • Paulington is located in Rockingham County
  • Melrose
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Melrose. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Melrose
    • Melrose is located in Rockingham County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Melrose
    • From Massanetta Springs to Melrose
  • Continue List   (14 more) ...
    • Dale Enterprise
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Dale Enterprise have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dale Enterprise
      • Dale Enterprise is located in Rockingham County
    • Dayton
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Port Republic
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Port Republic have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Port Republic
      • Port Republic is located in Rockingham County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Port Republic <1>

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

Newspapers Published in Massanetta Springs ...

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 69 newspapers that have been published in the area around Massanetta Springs.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Massanetta Springs, there are papers which were published within 19 miles [30.6 km]<5>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Massanetta Springs.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first turn to 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 Massanetta Springs:

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

The official website for Rockingham County: www.co.rockingham.va.us/

The official website for State of Virginia: https://www.virginia.gov/

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>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.
<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>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 Massanetta Springs, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<5>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 from Point A (ie- Massanetta Springs) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Massanetta Springs. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 38.4017, Longitude: -78.8343       In this case, the coordinates for Massanetta Springs have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).




 

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In closing, please keep in mind that we can not guarantee the accuracy or timeliness of the information on this website, so use with care. We encourage you to double-check the information that is critical to you.

If you've found an error or have additional information that you would like to share, please don't hesitate to write: Click here to contact us.

This page was last modified/updated: 31 Mar 2025