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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 Tacoma (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 Tacoma. 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 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.

Tacoma is located in Pierce County and is the County Seat.

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 Pierce County: King, Kitsap, Kittitas, Lewis, Mason, Thurston & Yakima.

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

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

Cemeteries Near Tacoma ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Tacoma.

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Tacoma, with the one closest to Tacoma 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.<6>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Tacoma had a population of 36,006 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Tacoma had a population of 219,945 people.

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

  • Excelsior
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Excelsior have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Excelsior
    • Excelsior is located in Pierce County
  • Fern Hill
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Fern Hill have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fern Hill
    • Fern Hill is located in Pierce County
  • Midland
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Midland. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Midland
    • Midland is located in Pierce County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Midland
    • From Tacoma to Midland
  • Parkland
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
  • Buenna
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Buenna. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Buenna
    • Buenna is located in King County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Buenna
    • From Tacoma to Buenna
  • Wollochet
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Wollochet have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wollochet
    • Wollochet is located in Pierce County
  • Lakeview
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Lakeview have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lakeview
    • Lakeview is located in Pierce County
  • Lake City
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Lake City have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lake City
    • Lake City is located in Pierce County
  • Puyallup
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
  • Meeker
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Meeker have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Meeker
    • Meeker is located in Pierce County
  • Gig Harbor
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
  • Fox Island
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
  • Continue List   (16 more) ...

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Tacoma ...

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 185 newspapers that have been published in the area around Tacoma.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Tacoma. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Tacoma and those printed in the larger area surrounding Tacoma.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 14 miles [22.5 km]<5> of Tacoma.

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 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 Tacoma:

The official website for Tacoma: www.cityoftacoma.org/

The official website for Pierce County: www.co.pierce.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>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>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Tacoma) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Tacoma. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 47.2534, Longitude: -122.4386    
<6>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 Tacoma, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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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.

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This page was last modified/updated: 29 Apr 2025