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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 Elk Bend (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 Elk Bend. 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 Elk Bend ...

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.

For example, a typical abbreviation for Elk Bend: Elk Bnd.

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 hospitals and doctors 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.

Elk Bend is located in Lemhi 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 Lemhi County: Butte, Clark, Custer, Idaho, Valley, Beaverhead (MT) & Ravalli (MT).

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

  • Lemhi County     (The home county of Elk Bend)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Elk Bend, with the one closest to Elk Bend listed first.
    • Tendoy
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
    • Lemhi
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Lemhi have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lemhi
      • Lemhi is located in Lemhi County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Lemhi <1>
    • Cobalt
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
    • May
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for May have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for May
      • May is located in Lemhi County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for May <1>
    • Salmon
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Salmon have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Salmon
      • Salmon is located in Lemhi County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 3,182 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Salmon <1>
    • Carmen
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Carmen have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Carmen
      • Carmen is located in Lemhi County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Carmen <1>
    • Leesburg
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Leesburg. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Leesburg
      • Leesburg is located in Lemhi County
    • Patterson
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Patterson
      • Patterson is located in Lemhi County
  • Custer County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Elk Bend, with the one closest to Elk Bend listed first.
    • Ellis
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Ellis have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ellis
      • Ellis is located in Custer County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Ellis <1>
    • Garden City ‑ Historic
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Garden City have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Garden City
      • Garden City is located in Custer County
    • Challis
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Challis have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Challis
      • Challis is located in Custer County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,066 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Challis <1>

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

Cemeteries Near Elk Bend ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Elk Bend.

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).

  • Chief Tendoy Gravesite
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Chief Tendoy Gravesite
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Chief Tendoy Gravesite is located outside and to the southeast of Tendoy.
    • The Chief Tendoy Gravesite has also been known as:
    • Chief Tendoy Burial Ground
    • Chief Tendoy Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #80431 <4>

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.<5>

While we didn't find Elk Bend in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Elk Bend.

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

  • Ellis
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Ellis have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ellis
    • Ellis is located in Custer County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Ellis <1>
  • Leesburg
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Leesburg. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Leesburg
    • Leesburg is located in Lemhi County
  • Challis
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Challis have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Challis
    • Challis is located in Custer County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,066 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Challis <1>

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

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we like to start with 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 Elk Bend:

Unfortunately, we don't know of a website for Elk Bend. If you can help, please contact us through our Feedback Page.

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

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 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.
<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>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.
<5>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 Elk Bend, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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In closing, please keep in mind that we can not guarantee the accuracy or timeliness of the information on this website, so use with care. We encourage you to double-check the information that is critical to you.

If you've found an error or have additional information that you would like to share, please don't hesitate to write: Click here to contact us.

This page was last modified/updated: 28 Apr 2025