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 James Town (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 James Town. 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 James Town ...
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.
While the name of this community is James Town, be aware that it's the common practice of mapmakers to remove the apostrophe from possessive names<1>. So James Town may originally have been Jame's Town.
Sometimes the trailing 's' might be dropped altogether, in which case James Town might be written as Jame Town.
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 northeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors and hospitals 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.
James Town is located in Sweetwater County.
To see how the shape of Wyoming's counties have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.
The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Sweetwater County: Moffat (CO), Daggett (UT), Summit (UT), Carbon, Fremont, Lincoln, Sublette & Uinta.
Below are the counties that are near James Town. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to James Town:
- Sweetwater County (The home county of James Town)
- The following are listed by their distance from James Town, with the one closest to James Town listed first.
- Green River
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Green River
- Green River is located in Sweetwater County
- Population from the 2020 Census: 11,788 people
- Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Green River <2>
- Bryan ‑ Historic
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the west) - Purple Sage
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Purple Sage
- Purple Sage is located in Sweetwater County
- Clearview Acres
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clearview Acres
- Clearview Acres is located in Sweetwater County
- North Rock Springs
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Rock Springs
- North Rock Springs is located in Sweetwater County
- Quealy
(15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Quealy
- Quealy is located in Sweetwater County
- Westvaco ‑ Historic
(15 miles [24.1 km] to the west) - Rock Springs
(16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rock Springs
- Rock Springs is located in Sweetwater County
- Population from the 2020 Census: 22,943 people
- Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Rock Springs <2>
- Little America
(17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Little America
- Little America is located in Sweetwater County
- Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Little America <2>
- Arrowhead Springs
(18 miles [29 km] to the east)- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Arrowhead Springs
- Arrowhead Springs is located in Sweetwater County
- Reliance
(18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Reliance
- Reliance is located in Sweetwater County
- Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Reliance <2>
- Granger
(23 miles [37 km] to the west)- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Granger
- Granger is located in Sweetwater County
- Population from the 2020 Census: 128 people
- Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Granger <2>
- Sweeney Ranch
(26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Sweeney Ranch have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sweeney Ranch
- Sweeney Ranch is located in Sweetwater County
For an expanded list of the communities that are closest to James Town, see our County-by-County Page for James Town.
Newspapers Published in James Town ...
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 21 newspapers that have been published in the area around James Town.
Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of James Town, there are papers which were published within 16 miles [25.7 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for James Town.
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 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 James Town:
- Websites specific to Wyoming
- Jump to Cyndi's List
- Jump to Family Search
- Jump to Genealogy Trails
- Website for the Wyoming State Archives
- Pages specific to Sweetwater County
- Jump to Cyndi's List
- Jump to Family Search
- Jump to Genealogy Trails
- Genealogy information for nearby counties
- Cemetery Information and Directories for Wyoming
- Cemetery Junction: Cemeteries of Wyoming
- Cyndi's List
- Cemeteries of Wyoming
- Cemeteries of Sweetwater County
- FamilySearch.org: Cemeteries of Wyoming
- Find-A-Grave: Home Page
- Interment.net
- Cemeteries of Wyoming
Cemeteries Near James Town ...
Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of James Town.
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 James Town covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.
The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from James Town, with the one closest to James Town listed first.
- Riverview Cemetery
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)- The Riverview Cemetery has also been known as:
- Green River Cemetery
- Riverview Memorial Cemetery
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Riverview Cemetery
- Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #84112 <5>
- Rest Haven Memorial Gardens
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)- To give a relative sense of its location, the Rest Haven Memorial Gardens is a large cemetery that is located outside and to the northeast of North Rock Springs.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Rest Haven Memorial Gardens
- Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #576425 <5>
- Rock Springs Municipal Cemetery
(15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)- The Rock Springs Municipal Cemetery has also been known as:
- Mountain View Cemetery
- Rock Springs Cemetery
- St. Josephs Cemetery
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Rock Springs Municipal Cemetery
- Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #84089 <5>
- Granger Municipal Cemetery
(23 miles [37 km] to the west)- To give a relative sense of its location, the Granger Municipal Cemetery is located in Granger.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Granger Municipal Cemetery
- Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2409723 <5>
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>
While we didn't find James Town in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of James Town.
These communities are listed based on their distance from James Town, with the one closest to James Town listed first.
- Green River
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Green River
- Green River is located in Sweetwater County
- Population from the 2020 Census: 11,788 people
- Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Green River <2>
- Peru
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the west) - Bryan ‑ Historic
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the west) - Rock Springs
(16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rock Springs
- Rock Springs is located in Sweetwater County
- Population from the 2020 Census: 22,943 people
- Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Rock Springs <2>
- Baxter
(21 miles [33.8 km] to the east) - Granger
(23 miles [37 km] to the west)- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Granger
- Granger is located in Sweetwater County
- Population from the 2020 Census: 128 people
- Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Granger <2>
- Salt Wells
(28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Salt Wells have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Salt Wells
- Salt Wells is located in Sweetwater County
We've also created an expanded list of communities that existed in the 1890's and were located in the area around James Town. See our List of 1890's Communities around James Town.
Off-the-Road Links ...
Unfortunately, we don't know of a website for James Town. If you can help, please contact us through our Feedback Page.
The official website for Sweetwater County: www.co.sweet.wy.us/
The official website for State of Wyoming: www.wyo.gov/
Footnotes ...
| <1> | It's generally believed that possessive apostrophes are removed to prevent confusion on maps where the apostrophe may be confused with a cartographic symbol. While this is generally true, it's not uncommon to find possessive apostrophes in administrative names (such as towns or counties). |
| <2> | While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program. |
| <3> | 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. |
| <4> | Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- James Town) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in James Town. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 41.5548, Longitude: -109.5143 |
| <5> | 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. |
| <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 James Town, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy. |