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A gazetteer is more than a list and description of places, it can help bring to life the ancestral homes and small villages which until now have existed in name only, or as part of family lore. It can be used to locate the places where your family lived. It's very useful when you aren't sure of the spelling of the town you are searching for because the place names are usually listed in alphabetical order, like a dictionary.  Gazetteers not only describe towns and villages, but also the rivers and mountains, and other geographical features. Gazettes can help you understand the environment and culture in which your ancestors lived.  However, they usually include only the names of places that existed at the time the book was published.

I recommend the following Gazettes:
 
"Omni gazetteer of the United States of America : providing name, location, and identification for nearly 1,500,000 populated places, structures, facilities, locales, historic places, and geographic features in the fifty states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and U.S. Territories." Frank R. Abate, editor.  ISBN  1558883363

A national gazetteer that identifies places in the U.S. as of 1884 is, "The National Gazetteer." London: Hamilton, Adams, and Co., 1884. Editor: de Colange, Leo.