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A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of West Virginia >> Marion County >> Fairmont >> Genealogy HelperIndex...

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 Fairmont (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 Fairmont. 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.

Fairmont is located in Marion County and is the County Seat.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Marion County: Harrison, Monongalia, Taylor & Wetzel.

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

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

Cemeteries Near Fairmont ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Fairmont.

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

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

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

  • Fairmont City Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
  • Woodlawn Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
  • Evergreen Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
  • Holy Cross Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
  • Memorial Presbyterian Church Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
  • Mt. Carmel Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
  • Maple Grove Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
  • Barrackville Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
  • Snoderly Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
  • Meadowdale Wesleyan Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
  • Pitcher Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
  • Shavers Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
  • Continue List   (553 more) ...
    • Linns Cemetery
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • Prickett Cemetery
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Hawkinberry Cemetery
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)

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.<2>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Fairmont had a population of 1,023 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Fairmont had a population of 18,370 people.

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

  • Palatine
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
    • Palatine is located in Marion County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Palatine
  • Watson
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
    • Watson is located in Marion County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Watson
  • Gaston Junction
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Gaston Junction is located in Marion County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gaston Junction
  • Barrackville
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
  • Gaston
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Gaston is located in Marion County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gaston
  • Hoult
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Hoult is located in Marion County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hoult
  • Bentons Ferry
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • Bentons Ferry is located in Marion County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bentons Ferry
  • Colfax
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
  • Canton
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
  • Montana
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Montana is located in Marion County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Montana
  • Rivesville
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
  • Thoburn
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Thoburn is located in Marion County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Thoburn
  • Continue List   (14 more) ...
    • Monongah
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Mount Harmony
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Catawba
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
      • Catawba is located in Marion County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Catawba

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Fairmont ...

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 Fairmont.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Fairmont. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Fairmont and those printed in the larger area surrounding Fairmont.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 12 miles [19.3 km]<3> of Fairmont.

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 Fairmont:

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