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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 Olsons (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 Olsons. 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.

Olsons is located in Shoshone 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 Shoshone County: Benewah, Bonner, Clearwater, Kootenai, Latah, Mineral (MT) & Sanders (MT).

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

  • Clearwater County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Olsons, with the one closest to Olsons listed first.
    • The Cedars
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for The Cedars
      • The Cedars is located in Clearwater County
    • Moose City
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Moose City have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Moose City
      • Moose City is located in Clearwater County
  • Mineral County (MT)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Olsons, with the one closest to Olsons listed first.
    • Crescent City ‑ Historic
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Crescent City have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crescent City
      • Crescent City is located in Mineral County (MT)
    • Riverbend
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Riverbend have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Riverbend
      • Riverbend is located in Mineral County (MT)
    • Superior
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Saint Regis
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
    • Cabin City
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Cabin City have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cabin City
      • Cabin City is located in Mineral County (MT)
    • De Borgia
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for De Borgia have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for De Borgia
      • De Borgia is located in Mineral County (MT)
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for De Borgia <2>
    • Haugan
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Alberton
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
  • Missoula County (MT)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Olsons, with the one closest to Olsons listed first.
    • Old Town
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Old Town have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Old Town
      • Old Town is located in Missoula County (MT)
    • Stark
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Stark. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stark
      • Stark is located in Missoula County (MT)
  • Sanders County (MT)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Olsons, with the one closest to Olsons listed first.
    • Island City ‑ Historic
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Island City have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Island City
      • Island City is located in Sanders County (MT)
    • Paradise
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Paradise have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Paradise
      • Paradise is located in Sanders County (MT)
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Paradise <2>

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

Cemeteries Near Olsons ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Olsons.

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

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

  • Heller Grave
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Heller Grave
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Heller Grave have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Quartz Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
  • Superior Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
  • Fish Creek Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Fish Creek Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Fish Creek Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Tarkio Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Tarkio Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Tarkio Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • The Tarkio Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Fold of Messiah Cemetery
    • Tarkio Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2278496 <4>
  • St. Regis Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
  • Shoecraft & Gorman Grave Site
    (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Shoecraft & Gorman Grave Site
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Shoecraft & Gorman Grave Site have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • De Borgia Cemetery
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)

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>

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

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

  • Superior
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
  • Saint Regis
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
  • De Borgia
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for De Borgia have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for De Borgia
    • De Borgia is located in Mineral County (MT)
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for De Borgia <2>

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

Newspapers Published in Olsons ...

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 2 newspapers that have been published in the area around Olsons.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Olsons, there are papers which were published within 17 miles [27.4 km]<5>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Olsons.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first visit the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These 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 Olsons:

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

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>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>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 drawn from Point A (ie- Olsons) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Olsons. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 47.0027, Longitude: -115.1301       In this case, the coordinates for Olsons have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<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 Olsons, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 28 Apr 2025