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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 Athol (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 Athol. 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 Athol ...

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.

The city of Athol was originally named Colton

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.

A Few Details for Athol ...

While it's still very early in our research, we found that:

  • It was incorporated in November 1967.

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 doctors 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.

Athol is located in Kootenai County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Kootenai County: Benewah, Bonner, Shoshone & Spokane (WA).

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

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

Cemeteries Near Athol ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Athol.

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 Athol covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

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

  • Mountain View Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Mountain View Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Mountain View Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Greenwood Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Greenwood Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Greenwood Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Rimrock Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
  • Pine Grove Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Pine Grove Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Pine Grove Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Clara Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Clara Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Clara Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #80433 <5>
  • Pine Grove Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Pine Grove Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Pine Grove Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Seneacquoteen Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Seneacquoteen Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Seneacquoteen Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Restlawn Memorial Park
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Restlawn Memorial Park
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Restlawn Memorial Park have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Drake Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Drake Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Drake Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Westmond Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Westmond Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Westmond Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Bestland Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Bestland Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Bestland Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Evergreen Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
  • Continue List   (18 more) ...

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>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that in 1895, Athol had railroad service and no post office. In 2020, Athol had a population of 809 people.

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

  • Ramsey
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Ramsey have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ramsey
    • Ramsey is located in Kootenai County
  • Cocolalla
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
  • Rathdrum
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Rathdrum have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rathdrum
    • Rathdrum is located in Kootenai County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 9,419 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Rathdrum <2>
  • Coeur d'Alene
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
  • Hauser
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Hauser have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hauser
    • Hauser is located in Kootenai County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 726 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Hauser <2>
  • Priest River
    (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
  • Post Falls
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Post Falls have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Post Falls
    • Post Falls is located in Kootenai County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 38,933 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Post Falls <2>
  • Sandpoint
    (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
  • Peone
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Kootenai
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)

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

Newspapers Published in Athol ...

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 42 newspapers that have been published in the area around Athol.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Athol, there are papers which were published within 26 miles [41.8 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Athol.

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 Athol:

The official website for Athol: www.cityofathol.us/

The official website for Kootenai County: www.co.kootenai.id.us/

The official website for State of Idaho: https://idaho.gov/

Footnotes ...

<1>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.
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<3>An 'estimated' location is one where we have been given GPS coordinates, but are unable to verify the accuracy of those coordinates. That said, we have some confidence that we have placed the marker near the actual location. A typical reason for being unable to verify a location is that it might be on private property or maybe historic and gone without an obvious trace.
<4>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- Athol) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Athol. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 47.9478, Longitude: -116.7051    
<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 Athol, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 28 Apr 2025