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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 Le Grand (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 Le Grand. 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 and doctors 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.

Le Grand is primarily located in Marshall County. A portion of Le Grand extends into Tama County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Marshall County: Grundy, Hardin, Jasper, Poweshiek, Story & Tama.

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

  • Marshall County     (The home county of Le Grand)
  • Benton County
  • Black Hawk County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Le Grand, with the one closest to Le Grand listed first.
    • Blessing
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Voorhies
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
      • Voorhies is located in Black Hawk County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Voorhies
  • Grundy County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Le Grand, with the one closest to Le Grand listed first.
    • Beaman
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
      • Beaman is located in Grundy County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Beaman
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 183 people
    • Conrad
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
    • Morrison
      (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
    • Reinbeck
      (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
    • Grundy Center
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
    • Holland
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
    • Wellsburg
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
  • Hardin County
  • Jasper County
  • Poweshiek County
  • Story County
  • Tama County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Le Grand, with the one closest to Le Grand listed first.
    • Montour
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Garwin
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
      • Garwin is located in Tama County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Garwin
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 490 people
    • Tama
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
    • Toledo
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
    • Gladbrook
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
    • Gladstone
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
      • Gladstone is located in Tama County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gladstone
    • Long Point
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
      • Long Point is located in Tama County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Long Point
    • Lincoln
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
      • Lincoln is located in Tama County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lincoln
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 148 people
    • Clutier
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
    • Chelsea
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
    • Buckingham
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Buckingham is located in Tama County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Buckingham
    • Traer
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)

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

Cemeteries Near Le Grand ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Le Grand.

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 Le Grand - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • Pleasant Hill Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
  • Friends Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
  • Le Grand Friends Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
  • Butlerville Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
  • Trinity Lutheran Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
  • St. Joseph's German Lutheran Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Stavanger Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Murty Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
  • Wallin Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Dodson Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
  • Bowles Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Rock Valley Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
  • Continue List   (255 more) ...
    • Strand Lutheran Cemetery
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • Maple Hill Cemetery
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Rouse Cemetery
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)

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.<3>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Le Grand had a population of 372 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Le Grand had a population of 923 people.

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

  • Quarry
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
    • Quarry is located in Marshall County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Quarry
  • Dillon
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Montour
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
  • Dunbar
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
  • Rockton
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Rockton is located in Marshall County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rockton
  • Pickering
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Pickering is located in Marshall County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pickering
  • Ferguson
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Green Mountain
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
  • Potter
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Potter is located in Tama County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Potter
  • Garwin
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Garwin is located in Tama County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Garwin
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 490 people
  • Marshalltown
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
  • Gilman
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
  • Continue List   (14 more) ...

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Le Grand ...

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 167 newspapers that have been published in the area around Le Grand.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Le Grand. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Le Grand and those printed in the larger area surrounding Le Grand.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<4> of Le Grand.

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 Le Grand:

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 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.
<3>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 Le Grand, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<4>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Le Grand) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.