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 West Haven (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 West Haven. 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 West Haven ...
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 West Haven: W. Haven
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 doctors and 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.
Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for East Shoreham. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Richville. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
Leicester Junction (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Leicester Junction. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Ironville. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
The following are listed by their distance from West Haven, with the one closest to West Haven listed first.
Sabbath Day Point (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Sabbath Day Point. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Brant Lake. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Chubbs Dock. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
Middle Granville (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Middle Granville. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of West Haven.
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 West Haven - one of the links might be able to help.
If not found below, our Cemetery List for West Haven covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.
The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from West Haven, with the one closest to West Haven listed first.
Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Carver Falls Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
Miller Cemetery (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Carter Street Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
Old North Half Cemetery (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Old North Half Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
Old South Half Cemetery (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Old South Half Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
Continue List (346 more) ...
St. Marys Cemetery (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Rodd - Elbow Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> 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.<5>
The Rand McNally Atlas shows that West Haven had a population of 75 people in 1895 with a post office and no railroad service.
These communities are listed based on their distance from West Haven, with the one closest to West Haven listed first.
Dresden (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Dresden have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Chubbs Dock. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Sabbath Day Point. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
We've also created an expanded list of communities that existed in the 1890's and were located in the area around West Haven. See our List of 1890's Communities around West Haven.
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 65 newspapers that have been published in the area around West Haven.
Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of West Haven, there are papers which were published within 19 miles [30.6 km]<6>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for West Haven.
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 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 West Haven:
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.
<2>
While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<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>
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.
<5>
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 West Haven, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<6>
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 from Point A (ie- West Haven) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in West Haven. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 43.6513, Longitude: -73.3471