Newspaper Clues to Place Names

Finding the exact location of places whose names were short-lived can be difficult. Sometimes it can be impossible to pinpoint precisely where a location was located–particularly if’s a place name that was never used in any official sense but was a nickname of sorts used for a neighborhood or an area.

One place to get an idea of when the name was used and generally where it was located is to search for it in old newspapers. Dating the references can give an idea of when it was used and there may be clues as to the geographic location of the area in those newspaper references.