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A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
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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 Orchard (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 Orchard. 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 southeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors were in the next county to the east. 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 east 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.

Orchard is located in Ada County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Ada County: Boise, Canyon, Elmore, Gem & Owyhee.

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

  • Ada County     (The home county of Orchard)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Orchard, with the one closest to Orchard listed first.
    • Swan Falls
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
      • Swan Falls is located in Ada County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Swan Falls
    • Boise
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
      • Boise is located in Ada County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Boise
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 229,776 people
      • Former name for Boise:
      • Boise City
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Boise <1>
    • Boise Hills Village
      (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
      • Boise Hills Village is located in Ada County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Boise Hills Village
    • Boise Junction
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
      • Boise Junction is located in Ada County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Boise Junction
    • Kuna
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
    • Collister
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Collister is located in Ada County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Collister
    • Garden City
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Meridian
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Canyon County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Orchard, with the one closest to Orchard listed first.
    • Melba
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
    • Bowmont
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
      • Bowmont is located in Canyon County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bowmont
    • Walters Ferry
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
      • Walters Ferry is located in Canyon County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Walters Ferry
    • Kings Corner
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Kings Corner is located in Canyon County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kings Corner
  • Elmore County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Orchard, with the one closest to Orchard listed first.
    • Mayfield
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
      • Mayfield is located in Elmore County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mayfield
    • Cleft
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Cleft is located in Elmore County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cleft
    • Mountain Home
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Reclamation Village
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
      • Reclamation Village is located in Elmore County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Reclamation Village
    • Dixie
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
      • Dixie is located in Elmore County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dixie
  • Owyhee County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Orchard, with the one closest to Orchard listed first.
    • Grand View
      (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
    • Oreana
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
      • Oreana is located in Owyhee County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oreana
    • Murphy
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)

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

Cemeteries Near Orchard ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Orchard.

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 Orchard - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • Jacob Reuben Graves
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Idaho State Penitentiary Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
  • Mountain View Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
  • Ft. Boise Military Cemetery
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ft. Boise Military Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Ft. Boise Military Cemetery is located outside and to the northeast of Boise.
    • The Ft. Boise Military Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Boise Barracks Military Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #80473 <2>
  • Pioneer Cemetery
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
  • Morris Hill Cemetery
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
  • Kuna Pioneer Cemetery
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
  • Kuna Cemetery
    (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kuna Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Kuna Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located in Kuna.
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #1970611 <2>
  • Mountain View Cemetery
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
  • Cloverdale Memorial Park
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
  • Terrace Lawn Memorial Gardens
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Meridian Cemetery
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Continue List   (5 more) ...
    • Joplin Cemetery
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Dry Creek Cemetery
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Idaho State Veterans Cemetery
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)

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>

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

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

  • Mayfield
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Mayfield is located in Elmore County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mayfield
  • Cleft
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Cleft is located in Elmore County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cleft
  • Owyhee
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Owyhee is located in Ada County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Owyhee
  • Mora
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Mora is located in Ada County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mora
  • Mountain Home
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
  • Boise
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Boise is located in Ada County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Boise
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 229,776 people
    • Former name for Boise:
    • Boise City
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Boise <1>
  • Grand View
    (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
  • Kuna
    (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
  • Oreana
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Oreana is located in Owyhee County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oreana
  • Sinker ‑ Historic
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Sinker is located in Owyhee County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sinker
  • Reverse
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Reverse is located in Elmore County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Reverse

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

Newspapers Published in Orchard ...

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 85 newspapers that have been published in the area around Orchard.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Orchard, there are papers which were published within 27 miles [43.5 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Orchard.

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 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 Orchard:

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 Orchard, 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 things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Orchard) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.