RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Virginia >> Williams Court >> 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 Williams Court (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 Williams Court. 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 Williams Court ...

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 occur.

  • A typical abbreviation for Williams Court: Williams Ct. (or less commonly used: Williams Crt.)
  • While the name of this community is Williams Court, be aware that it's the common practice of mapmakers to remove the apostrophe from possessive names<1>. So Williams Court may originally have been William's Court.

    Sometimes the trailing 's' might be dropped altogether, in which case Williams Court might be written as William Court.

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.

Cemeteries Near Williams Court ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Williams Court.

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 Williams Court - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • Lincoln Memorial Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
  • Jewish Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
  • All Saint Catholic Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for All Saint Catholic Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the All Saint Catholic Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located in Portsmouth.
    • The All Saint Catholic Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Portsmouth Catholic Cemetery
    • St. Paul's Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #52028 <2>
  • Mt. Calvary Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
  • Evergreen Memorial Park
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
  • Bainbridge & Elco Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
  • Trinity Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
  • Oak Grove Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
  • Olive Branch Baptist Church Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
  • Olive Branch Baptist Church Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
  • Wallace Family Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
  • Roosevelt Memorial Park
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
  • Continue List   (122 more) ...
    • Workmans Circle Cemetery
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Mt. Olive Cemetery
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Mt. Olive Cemetery
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)

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>

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

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

  • Berkley
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Berkley is located in Norfolk City
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Berkley
  • Brambleton
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Brambleton is located in Norfolk City
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brambleton
  • Norfolk
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
  • Lamberts Point
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Lamberts Point is located in Norfolk City
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lamberts Point
  • Elizabeth Park
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Elizabeth Park is located in Norfolk City
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elizabeth Park
  • Deanes
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Deanes is located in Suffolk City
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Deanes
  • Shoulders Hill
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Shoulders Hill is located in Suffolk City
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shoulders Hill
  • Kempsville
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
    • Kempsville is located in Virginia Beach City
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kempsville
  • Driver
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
    • Driver is located in Suffolk City
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Driver
  • Thalia
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
    • Thalia is located in Virginia Beach City
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Thalia
  • Ocean View
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Ocean View is located in Norfolk City
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ocean View
  • Magnolia
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
    • Magnolia is located in Suffolk City
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Magnolia
  • Continue List   (14 more) ...
    • Mapleton
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
      • Mapleton is located in Virginia Beach City
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mapleton
    • Suffolk
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
    • Lynnhaven
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
      • Lynnhaven is located in Virginia Beach City
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lynnhaven

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

Newspapers Published in Williams Court ...

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 160 newspapers that have been published in the area around Williams Court.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Williams Court, there are papers which were published within 4 miles [6.4 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Williams Court.

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 helpful 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 Williams Court:

Footnotes ...

<1>It's generally believed that possessive apostrophes are removed to prevent confusion on maps where the apostrophe may be confused with a cartographic symbol. While this is generally true, it's not uncommon to find possessive apostrophes in administrative names (such as towns or counties).
<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' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Williams Court) 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 Williams Court, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<5>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.