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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 Sugar Grove (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 Sugar Grove. 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 Sugar Grove ...

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.

Another variation: Sugargrove.

  • A typical abbreviation for Sugar Grove: Sugar Grv.

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 northeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals 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.

Sugar Grove is located in Smyth 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 Smyth County: Bland, Grayson, Russell, Tazewell, Washington & Wythe.

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

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

Cemeteries Near Sugar Grove ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Sugar Grove.

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

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

  • Hutton Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Hutton Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Hutton Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Cress Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
  • Nelson Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
  • Slemp Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Slemp Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Slemp Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Ridgelawn Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Ridgelawn Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Ridgelawn Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Morgan Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Morgan Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Morgan Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Ross Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Ross Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Ross Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Porter Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Porter Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Porter Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Pierce Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Pierce Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Pierce Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Scott Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Scott Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Scott Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Pugh Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Pugh Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Pugh Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Scott Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Scott Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Scott Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Continue List   (605 more) ...
    • Keesling Cemetery
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Keesling Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Keesling Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Kirk Cemetery
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Kirk Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Kirk Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Marchant Cemetery
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Marchant Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Marchant Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.

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 Sugar Grove had a population of 17 people in 1895 with a post office and no railroad service.

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

  • Trout Dale
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
  • Flat Ridge
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Atkins
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
  • Grant
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Grant have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grant
    • Grant is located in Grayson County
  • Marion
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Marion have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Marion
    • Marion is located in Smyth County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 5,555 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Marion <1>
  • Groseclose
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Groseclose have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Groseclose
    • Groseclose is located in Smyth County
  • Comers Rock
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Comers Rock have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Comers Rock
    • Comers Rock is located in Grayson County
  • Adwolf
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Adwolf. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Adwolf
    • Adwolf is located in Smyth County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Adwolf
    • From Sugar Grove to Adwolf
  • Summit
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Summit have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Summit
    • Summit is located in Wythe County
  • Rugby
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
  • Rural Retreat
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Seven Mile Ford
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
  • Continue List   (15 more) ...

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

Newspapers Published in Sugar Grove ...

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 48 newspapers that have been published in the area around Sugar Grove.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Sugar Grove, there are papers which were published within 21 miles [33.8 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Sugar Grove.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we like to 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 Sugar Grove:

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

The official website for Smyth County: www.smythcounty.org/

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>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.
<3>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.
<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- Sugar Grove) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Sugar Grove. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 36.7756, Longitude: -81.4125    
<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 Sugar Grove, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 21 Aug 2025