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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 Rye (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 Rye. 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 southwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals and doctors were in the next county to the west. 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 west 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.

Rye is located in Kittitas 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 Kittitas County: Chelan, Douglas, Grant, King, Pierce & Yakima.

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

  • Kittitas County     (The home county of Rye)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Rye, with the one closest to Rye listed first.
    • Vantage
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Kittitas
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Hillside Siding
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
      • Hillside Siding is located in Kittitas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hillside Siding
    • Ellensburg
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Thorp
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Grant County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Rye, with the one closest to Rye listed first.
    • Wanapum Village
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
      • Wanapum Village is located in Grant County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wanapum Village
    • Beverly
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
    • Mattawa
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Desert Aire
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
    • George
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Royal City
      (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
    • Quincy
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Yakima County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Rye, with the one closest to Rye listed first.
    • Terrace Heights
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
      • Terrace Heights is located in Yakima County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Terrace Heights
    • Selah
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Moxee City
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
      • Moxee City is located in Yakima County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Moxee City
    • Moxee
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Fruitvale
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Fruitvale is located in Yakima County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fruitvale
    • Yakima
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Eschbach
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
      • Eschbach is located in Yakima County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eschbach
    • Gleed
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Union Gap
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
    • South Broadway
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
      • South Broadway is located in Yakima County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Broadway
    • West Valley
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
      • West Valley is located in Yakima County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West Valley
    • Naches
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
    • Parker
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Parker is located in Yakima County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Parker

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

Cemeteries Near Rye ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Rye.

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

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

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

  • Old German Baptist Cascade Valley Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
  • IOOF Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Holland Cemetery
    (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
  • Holy Cross Cemetery
    (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
  • Wenas Cemetery
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
  • Terrace Heights Memorial Park
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
  • Holy Rosary Cemetery
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
  • Black Rock Cemetery
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
  • Pioneer Cemetery
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Calvary Cemetery
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
  • Tahoma Cemetery
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
  • Thorp Cemetery
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)

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>

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

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

  • Roza
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
    • Roza is located in Kittitas County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Roza
  • Umtanum
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
    • Umtanum is located in Kittitas County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Umtanum
  • Thrall
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
    • Thrall is located in Kittitas County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Thrall
  • Holmes
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
    • Holmes is located in Kittitas County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Holmes
  • Ellensburg
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
  • Selah
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
  • Moxee
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Yakima
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Thorp
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)

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

Newspapers Published in Rye ...

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 46 newspapers that have been published in the area around Rye.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Rye, there are papers which were published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<2>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Rye.

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 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 Rye:

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>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- Rye) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<3>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.
<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 Rye, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.