RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Washington >> Grays Harbor County >> Ocean Shores >> Genealogy HelperIndex...










Learn About
The Commemorative
Quarter for
Washington

The Commemorative Quarter for Washington





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 Ocean Shores (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 Ocean Shores. 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 Ocean Shores ...

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 Ocean Shores: Ocean Shrs.

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 hospitals and 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.

Ocean Shores is located in Grays Harbor 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 Grays Harbor County: Jefferson, Lewis, Mason, Pacific & Thurston.

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

  • Grays Harbor County     (The home county of Ocean Shores)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Ocean Shores, with the one closest to Ocean Shores listed first.
    • Oyehut
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oyehut
      • Oyehut is located in Grays Harbor County
    • Ocean City
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Westport
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Gray Gables
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Gray Gables have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gray Gables
      • Gray Gables is located in Grays Harbor County
    • Cohassett Beach
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
      • 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
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
      • 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
    • Grays Harbor City
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
      • 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
    • Copalis Beach
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
    • Copalis Crossing
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Bay City
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
      • 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
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Laidlow
      • Laidlow is located in Grays Harbor County
    • Markham
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
      • 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
  • Pacific County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Ocean Shores, with the one closest to Ocean Shores listed first.
    • Tokeland
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Bay Center
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
    • South Bend
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Raymond
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Oysterville
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)

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

Newspapers Published in Ocean Shores ...

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 77 newspapers that have been published in the area around Ocean Shores.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Ocean Shores, there are papers which were published within 28 miles [45.1 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Ocean Shores.

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 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 Ocean Shores:

Cemeteries Near Ocean Shores ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Ocean Shores.

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

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

  • Sunset Memorial Park
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
    • 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
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
  • Forest Hill Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
    • 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
  • Wynooche Cemetery
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
    • 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
  • Washington Cemetery
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
    • 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

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 Ocean Shores in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Ocean Shores.

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

  • Ocosta
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
    • 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
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
    • 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
  • Hoquiam
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
    • 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>
  • Aberdeen
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
    • 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>
  • South Aberdeen
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Aberdeen
    • South Aberdeen is located in Grays Harbor County
  • Axford
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Axford
    • Axford is located in Grays Harbor County
  • Cosmopolis
    (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
  • Aberdeen Junction
    (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Aberdeen Junction have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Aberdeen Junction
    • Aberdeen Junction is located in Grays Harbor County
  • Humptulips
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
  • Continue List   (6 more) ...
    • Artic
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
      • 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
    • North Cove
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
      • 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
    • Bay Center
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
    • Melbourne
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Melbourne
      • Melbourne is located in Grays Harbor County
    • Montesano
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
    • South Bend
      (27 miles [43.5 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 Ocean Shores. See our List of 1890's Communities around Ocean Shores.

The official website for Ocean Shores: www.osgov.com/

The official website for Grays Harbor County: www.co.grays-harbor.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 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Ocean Shores) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Ocean Shores. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 46.9792, Longitude: -124.1592    
<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 Ocean Shores, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

Copyright 2024
All Rights Reserved

Thank you for visiting our website.

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.

If you've found an error or have additional information that you would like to share, please don't hesitate to write: Click here to contact us.

This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024