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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 Parnassus (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 Parnassus. 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 hospitals and doctors 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.

Parnassus is located in Augusta 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 Augusta County: Albemarle, Bath, Highland, Nelson, Rockbridge, Rockingham & Pendleton (WV).

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

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

Cemeteries Near Parnassus ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Parnassus.

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Parnassus, with the one closest to Parnassus 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.<6>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Parnassus had a population of 46 people in 1895 with a post office and no railroad service.

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

  • Moscow
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Moscow have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Moscow
    • Moscow is located in Augusta County
  • Mount Solon
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
  • Stribling Springs
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Stribling Springs have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stribling Springs
    • Stribling Springs is located in Augusta County
  • Lone Fountain
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Lone Fountain have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lone Fountain
    • Lone Fountain is located in Augusta County
  • Churchville
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
  • Roman
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Roman have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Roman
    • Roman is located in Augusta County
  • Sangerville
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Sangerville have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sangerville
    • Sangerville is located in Augusta County
  • Verona
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
  • Fort Defiance
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Fort Defiance have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fort Defiance
    • Fort Defiance is located in Augusta County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Fort Defiance <1>
  • Mount Sidney
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Mount Sidney have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mount Sidney
    • Mount Sidney is located in Augusta County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Mount Sidney <1>
  • Stonewall
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Stonewall have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stonewall
    • Stonewall is located in Augusta County
  • Spring Creek
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
  • Continue List   (14 more) ...
    • Buffalo Gap
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Buffalo Gap have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Buffalo Gap
      • Buffalo Gap is located in Augusta County
    • Swoope
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Swoope have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Swoope
      • Swoope is located in Augusta County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Swoope <1>
    • Snyder
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Snyder have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Snyder
      • Snyder is located in Augusta County

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

Newspapers Published in Parnassus ...

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 57 newspapers that have been published in the area around Parnassus.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Parnassus, there are papers which were published within 20 miles [32.2 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Parnassus.

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 Parnassus:

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

The official website for Augusta County: www.co.augusta.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>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Parnassus) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Parnassus. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 38.2948, Longitude: -79.1179    
<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 Parnassus, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 31 Mar 2025