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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 Bainbridge Island (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 Bainbridge Island. 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 Bainbridge Island ...

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.

Bainbridge Island has also been known as: Winslow.

  • A typical abbreviation for Bainbridge Island: Bainbridge Is. (in Canada, 'Isld.' is the more common abbreviation.)

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 southwest 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 south.

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 south 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.

Bainbridge Island is located in Kitsap County.

To see how the shape of Washington's counties have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Kitsap County: Island, Jefferson, King, Mason & Pierce.

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

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

Cemeteries Near Bainbridge Island ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Bainbridge Island.

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

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

  • Ft. Blakely Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Ft. Blakely Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Ft. Blakely Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Seabold Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Seabold Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Seabold Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Ft. Lawton Military Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Ft. Lawton Military Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Ft. Lawton Military Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Ivy Green Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Ivy Green Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Ivy Green Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Tracyton Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Tracyton Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Tracyton Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Veterans Home Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Veterans Home Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Veterans Home Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Mt. Pleasant Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
  • Miller - Woodlawn Memorial Park
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Forest Lawn Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Sunset Lane Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Sunset Lane Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Sunset Lane Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • K P Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the K P Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the K P Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Sedgwick Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
  • Continue List   (81 more) ...
    • Crown Hill Cemetery
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Crown Hill Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Crown Hill Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Pearson Cemetery
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Pearson Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Pearson Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Forest Lawn Cemetery
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)

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>

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

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

  • Crystal Springs
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Crystal Springs have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crystal Springs
    • Crystal Springs is located in Kitsap County
  • Port Blakely ‑ Historic
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Port Blakely have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Port Blakely
    • Port Blakely is located in Kitsap County
  • Brownsville
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
  • Port Madison
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
  • Tracyton
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
  • Colby
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
  • Charleston
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Charleston have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Charleston
    • Charleston is located in Kitsap County
  • West Seattle
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for West Seattle have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West Seattle
    • West Seattle is located in King County
  • Ross ‑ Historic
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Ross have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ross
    • Ross is located in King County
  • Ballard
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Ballard have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ballard
    • Ballard is located in King County
  • Fremont
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
  • Edgewater ‑ Historic
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Edgewater have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Edgewater
    • Edgewater is located in King County
  • Continue List   (13 more) ...

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Bainbridge Island ...

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 615 newspapers that have been published in the area around Bainbridge Island.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Bainbridge Island. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Bainbridge Island and those printed in the larger area surrounding Bainbridge Island.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 9 miles [14.5 km]<5> of Bainbridge Island.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first visit 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 Bainbridge Island:

The official website for Bainbridge Island: www.ci.bainbridge-isl.wa.us/

The official website for Kitsap County: www.kitsapgov.com/

The official website for State of Washington: https://wa.gov/

Footnotes ...

<1>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.
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<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>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>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- Bainbridge Island) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Bainbridge Island. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 47.6286, Longitude: -122.5227    
<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 Bainbridge Island, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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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.

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This page was last modified/updated: 29 Apr 2025