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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 Bay Center (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 Bay Center. 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 Bay Center ...

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 Bay Center: Bay Ctr. (or less commonly used: Bay Cen., Bay Cent. or Bay Cntr.)

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 southeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors were in the next county to the east. 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 east 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.

Bay Center is located in Pacific 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 Pacific County: Clatsop (OR), Grays Harbor, Lewis & Wahkiakum.

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

  • Pacific County     (The home county of Bay Center)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Bay Center, with the one closest to Bay Center listed first.
    • Tokeland
      (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Oysterville
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
    • South Bend
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
    • Nahcotta
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
    • Ocean Park
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Raymond
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
    • Menlo
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Menlo
      • Menlo is located in Pacific County
    • Breakers
      (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Breakers
      • Breakers is located in Pacific County
    • Lebam
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
    • Long Beach
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
    • Naselle
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
    • Seaview
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
    • Ilwaco
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
  • Grays Harbor County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Bay Center, with the one closest to Bay Center listed first.
    • Grayland
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Bay City
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Bay City have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bay City
      • Bay City is located in Grays Harbor County
    • Laidlow
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Laidlow
      • Laidlow is located in Grays Harbor County
    • Cohassett Beach
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Cohassett Beach have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cohassett Beach
      • Cohassett Beach is located in Grays Harbor County
    • Ocosta
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Ocosta have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ocosta
      • Ocosta is located in Grays Harbor County
    • Markham
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Markham have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Markham
      • Markham is located in Grays Harbor County
    • Westport
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
    • Cosmopolis
      (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
    • Aberdeen
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Aberdeen
      • Aberdeen is located in Grays Harbor County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 16,827 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Aberdeen <1>
    • Grays Harbor City
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Grays Harbor City have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grays Harbor City
      • Grays Harbor City is located in Grays Harbor County
    • Hoquiam
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hoquiam
      • Hoquiam is located in Grays Harbor County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 8,699 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Hoquiam <1>
    • Junction City
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Junction City have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Junction City
      • Junction City is located in Grays Harbor County
    • South Aberdeen
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Aberdeen
      • South Aberdeen is located in Grays Harbor County
  • Wahkiakum County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Bay Center, with the one closest to Bay Center listed first.
    • Grays River
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Rosburg
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Altoona
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Altoona have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Altoona
      • Altoona is located in Wahkiakum County
    • Dahlia
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dahlia
      • Dahlia is located in Wahkiakum County
  • Clatsop County (OR)
    • Hammond
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Hammond have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hammond
      • Hammond is located in Clatsop County (OR)
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Hammond <1>

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

Newspapers Published in Bay Center ...

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 86 newspapers that have been published in the area around Bay Center.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Bay Center, there are papers which were published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Bay Center.

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 Bay Center:

Cemeteries Near Bay Center ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Bay Center.

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

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

  • Washington Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Washington Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Washington Cemetery
  • Fern Hill Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Fern Hill Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Fern Hill Cemetery
  • Giesy Family Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Giesy Family Cemetery is located less than 2 miles<3> to the southeast of Menlo.
    • The Giesy Family Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Kiel Colony Cemetery
    • Willie Keil Gravesite
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Giesy Family Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #641574 <4>
  • Lone Fir Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Lone Fir Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Lone Fir Cemetery
  • Paceful Hill Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Paceful Hill Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Paceful Hill Cemetery
  • Ilwaco Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Ilwaco Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Ilwaco Cemetery
  • Salmon Creek Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
    • The Salmon Creek Cemetery has also been known as:
    • New Salmon Creek Cemetery
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Salmon Creek Cemetery
  • Forest Hill Cemetery
    (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Forest Hill Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Forest Hill Cemetery
  • Sunset Memorial Park
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Sunset Memorial Park have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Sunset Memorial Park
  • Fern Hill Cemetery
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
  • Wynooche Cemetery
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Wynooche Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Wynooche Cemetery

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 Bay Center had a population of 132 people in 1895 with a post office and no railroad service.

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

  • North Cove
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for North Cove have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Cove
    • North Cove is located in Pacific County
  • Oysterville
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
  • South Bend
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
  • Willapa
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Willapa have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Willapa
    • Willapa is located in Pacific County
  • Ocosta
    (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Ocosta have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ocosta
    • Ocosta is located in Grays Harbor County
  • Naselle
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
  • Lebam
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
  • Markham
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Markham have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Markham
    • Markham is located in Grays Harbor County
  • Artic
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Artic have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Artic
    • Artic is located in Grays Harbor County
  • Ilwaco
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
  • Deep River
    (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Deep River have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Deep River
    • Deep River is located in Wahkiakum County
  • Cosmopolis
    (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
  • Continue List   (11 more) ...
    • Fort Canby
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fort Canby
      • Fort Canby is located in Pacific County
    • South Aberdeen
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Aberdeen
      • South Aberdeen is located in Grays Harbor County
    • Aberdeen
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Aberdeen
      • Aberdeen is located in Grays Harbor County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 16,827 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Aberdeen <1>

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

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

The official website for Pacific County: www.co.pacific.wa.us/

The official website for State of Washington: https://access.wa.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>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- Bay Center) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Bay Center. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 46.6316, Longitude: -123.9550    
<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 Bay Center, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.









 

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This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024