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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 Bellevue (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 Bellevue. 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.

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 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.

Bellevue is located in King 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 King County: Chelan, Kittitas, Pierce & Snohomish.

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

  • King County     (The home county of Bellevue)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Bellevue, with the one closest to Bellevue listed first.
    • Clyde Hill
      (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Clyde Hill have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clyde Hill
      • Clyde Hill is located in King County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 3,398 people
    • Hunts Point
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Yarrow Point
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Beaux Arts Village
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Beaux Arts Village have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Beaux Arts Village
      • Beaux Arts Village is located in King County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 322 people
    • Norwood Village
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Norwood Village have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Norwood Village
      • Norwood Village is located in King County
    • Medina
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Medina have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Medina
      • Medina is located in King County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 3,308 people
    • Eastgate
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Eastgate have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eastgate
      • Eastgate is located in King County
    • Sunset Village
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Sunset Village have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sunset Village
      • Sunset Village is located in King County
    • Mercer Island Town
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Mercer Island Town have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mercer Island Town
      • Mercer Island Town is located in King County
    • Mercer Island
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Kirkland
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • West Lake Sammamish
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for West Lake Sammamish have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West Lake Sammamish
      • West Lake Sammamish is located in King County
    • Adelaide
      (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Adelaide. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Adelaide
      • Adelaide is located in King County
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Adelaide
      • From Bellevue to Adelaide
  • Island County
  • Kitsap County
  • Pierce County
  • Snohomish County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Bellevue, with the one closest to Bellevue listed first.
    • Brier
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
    • Canyon Park
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
    • Maltby
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
    • North Creek
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
    • Echo Lake
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Echo Lake have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Echo Lake
      • Echo Lake is located in Snohomish County
    • Mountlake Terrace
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Alderwood Manor
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Alderwood Manor have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Alderwood Manor
      • Alderwood Manor is located in Snohomish County
    • Esperance
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Esperance have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Esperance
      • Esperance is located in Snohomish County
    • Clearview
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
    • Edmonds
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Lynnwood
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Woodway
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Woodway have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Woodway
      • Woodway is located in Snohomish County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,391 people
    • Cathcart
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)

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

Cemeteries Near Bellevue ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Bellevue.

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

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

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>

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

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

  • Houghton
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Houghton have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Houghton
    • Houghton is located in King County
  • Kirkland
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
  • May Creek
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for May Creek have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for May Creek
    • May Creek is located in King County
  • Newcastle
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
  • Monohan
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Monohan have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Monohan
    • Monohan is located in King County
  • Inglewood
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Inglewood. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Inglewood
    • Inglewood is located in King County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Inglewood
    • From Bellevue to Inglewood
  • Adelaide
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Adelaide. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Adelaide
    • Adelaide is located in King County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Adelaide
    • From Bellevue to Adelaide
  • Redmond
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
  • Pontiac
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Pontiac. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pontiac
    • Pontiac is located in King County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Pontiac
    • From Bellevue to Pontiac
  • Coal Creek
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Coal Creek have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Coal Creek
    • Coal Creek is located in King County
  • York
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for York have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for York
    • York is located in King County
  • Ravenna
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Ravenna. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ravenna
    • Ravenna is located in King County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Ravenna
    • From Bellevue to Ravenna
  • Continue List   (17 more) ...
    • Seattle
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Juanita
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Juanita. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Juanita
      • Juanita is located in King County
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Juanita
      • From Bellevue to Juanita
    • Van Asselt
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Van Asselt. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Van Asselt
      • Van Asselt is located in King County
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Van Asselt
      • From Bellevue to Van Asselt

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Bellevue ...

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 661 newspapers that have been published in the area around Bellevue.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Bellevue. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Bellevue and those printed in the larger area surrounding Bellevue.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 9 miles [14.5 km]<6> of Bellevue.

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 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 Bellevue:

The official website for Bellevue: www.ci.bellevue.wa.us/

The official website for King County: www.metrokc.gov/

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

Footnotes ...

<1>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 Bellevue, 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' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Bellevue) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Bellevue. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 47.6176, Longitude: -122.1892    









 

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This page was last modified/updated: 29 Apr 2025