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A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
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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 Chaffee (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 Chaffee. 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 northwest 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 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 west 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.

Chaffee is located in Benton County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Benton County: Morrow (OR), Umatilla (OR), Franklin, Grant, Klickitat, Walla Walla & Yakima.

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

  • Benton County     (The home county of Chaffee)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Chaffee, with the one closest to Chaffee listed first.
    • Benton City
      (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
    • Prosser
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • West Richland
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
    • Richland
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
    • Kennewick
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
    • Paterson
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
    • Highland
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
      • Highland is located in Benton County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Highland
    • Plymouth
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Plymouth is located in Benton County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Plymouth
    • Finley
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
      • Finley is located in Benton County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Finley
  • Franklin County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Chaffee, with the one closest to Chaffee listed first.
    • West Pasco
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
      • West Pasco is located in Franklin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West Pasco
    • Pasco
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
      • Pasco is located in Franklin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pasco
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 77,095 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Pasco <1>
    • Ainsworth Junction
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
      • Ainsworth Junction is located in Franklin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ainsworth Junction
  • Walla Walla County
  • Yakima County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Chaffee, with the one closest to Chaffee listed first.
    • Byron
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
      • Byron is located in Yakima County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Byron
    • Grandview
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
    • Mabton
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
    • Sunnyside
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
    • Outlook
      (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
      • Outlook is located in Yakima County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Outlook
    • Satus
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
      • Satus is located in Yakima County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Satus
    • Granger
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
  • Morrow County (OR)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Chaffee, with the one closest to Chaffee listed first.
    • Irrigon
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
      • Irrigon is located in Morrow County (OR)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Irrigon
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,799 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Irrigon <1>
    • Boardman
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
  • Umatilla County (OR)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Chaffee, with the one closest to Chaffee listed first.
    • Umatilla
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
      • Umatilla is located in Umatilla County (OR)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Umatilla
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 7,360 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Umatilla <1>
    • Power City
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Power City is located in Umatilla County (OR)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Power City

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

Cemeteries Near Chaffee ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Chaffee.

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 Chaffee - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • Evergreen Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
  • Prosser Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Grandview Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
  • Sunset Memorial Gardens
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
  • Resthaven Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Resthaven Cemetery
    • The Resthaven Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Rest Haven Cemetery
  • Mabton Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
  • Desert Lawn Memorial Park
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
  • Sunnyside Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
  • Sunnyside Memorial Gardens
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
  • Lower Valley Memorial Gardens
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
  • Riverview Heights Cemetery
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
  • Columbia Memorial Gardens
    (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
  • Continue List   (10 more) ...
    • Outlook Cemetery
      (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
    • City View Cemetery
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for City View Cemetery
      • To give a relative sense of its location, the City View Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located outside and to the northeast of Pasco.
      • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #76739 <2>
    • Irrigon Cemetery
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)

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.<3>

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

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

  • Byron
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
    • Byron is located in Yakima County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Byron
  • Mabton
    (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
  • Pasco
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
    • Pasco is located in Franklin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pasco
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 77,095 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Pasco <1>
  • Glade
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
    • Glade is located in Franklin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Glade
  • Satus
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
    • Satus is located in Yakima County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Satus
  • Umatilla
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Umatilla is located in Umatilla County (OR)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Umatilla
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 7,360 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Umatilla <1>

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

Newspapers Published in Chaffee ...

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 56 newspapers that have been published in the area around Chaffee.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Chaffee, there are papers which were published within 28 miles [45.1 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Chaffee.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we like to start with the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These websites either 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 Chaffee:

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 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>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 Chaffee, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<4>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Chaffee) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.