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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 Decatur 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 Decatur 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.

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.

Decatur Island is located in San Juan 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 San Juan County: Island, Skagit & Whatcom.

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

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

Cemeteries Near Decatur Island ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Decatur 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 Decatur Island covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

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

  • Lopez Union Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
  • Eden Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Eden Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Eden Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Olga - Doe Bay Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
  • Grandview Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Grandview Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Grandview Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Fern Hill Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Fern Hill Cemetery
    • 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.
  • Woodlawn Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Woodlawn Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Woodlawn Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Maple Leaf Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Bay View Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Bay View Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Bay View Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Pleasant Ridge Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Pleasant Ridge Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Pleasant Ridge Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Bow Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Bow Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Bow Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Lummi Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Lummi Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Lummi Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Sunnyside Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
  • Continue List   (26 more) ...

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.<4>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that in 1895, Decatur Island had a post office and no railroad service.

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

  • Lopez Island
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
  • Richardson
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Richardson have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Richardson
    • Richardson is located in San Juan County
  • Olga
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
  • Anacortes
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
  • Guemes
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Guemes have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Guemes
    • Guemes is located in Skagit County
  • Orcas
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
  • Doe Bay
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Doe Bay have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Doe Bay
    • Doe Bay is located in San Juan County
  • Friday Harbor
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
  • Argyle
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
  • Gibraltar
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Gibraltar have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gibraltar
    • Gibraltar is located in Skagit County
  • Eastsound
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
  • Whitney
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Whitney have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Whitney
    • Whitney is located in Skagit County
  • Continue List   (14 more) ...
    • Bay View
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Bay View have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bay View
      • Bay View is located in Skagit County
    • Beach
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Beach have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Beach
      • Beach is located in Whatcom County
    • Oak Harbor
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)

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

Newspapers Published in Decatur 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 55 newspapers that have been published in the area around Decatur Island.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Decatur Island, there are papers which were published within 26 miles [41.8 km]<5>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Decatur 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 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 Decatur Island:

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

The official website for San Juan County: www.co.san-juan.wa.us/

The official website for State of Washington: https://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>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>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 Decatur Island, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<5>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- Decatur Island) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Decatur Island. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 48.5073, Longitude: -122.8063    









 

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This page was last modified/updated: 29 Apr 2025