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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 Rankin Mill (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 Rankin Mill. 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 Rankin Mill ...

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 occur.

For example, a typical abbreviation for Rankin Mill: Rankin Ml. (or less commonly used: Rankin Mll.)

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.

Rankin Mill is located in Adams 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 Adams County: Gem, Idaho, Valley, Washington, Baker (OR) & Wallowa (OR).

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

  • Adams County     (The home county of Rankin Mill)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Rankin Mill, with the one closest to Rankin Mill listed first.
    • Rubicon
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
      • Rubicon is located in Adams County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rubicon
    • Tamarack
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
    • New Meadows
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Meadows
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Meadows is located in Adams County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Meadows
  • Idaho County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Rankin Mill, with the one closest to Rankin Mill listed first.
    • Pollock
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
    • Riggins
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Lucile
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Burgdorf
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
  • Baker County (OR)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Rankin Mill, with the one closest to Rankin Mill listed first.
    • Homestead ‑ Historic
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
      • Homestead is located in Baker County (OR)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Homestead
    • Oxbow
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Wallowa County (OR)
    • Imnaha
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)

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

Cemeteries Near Rankin Mill ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Rankin Mill.

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 Rankin Mill - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • Park Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
  • North Riggins Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Riggins Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Bear Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
  • Copperfield - Homestead Cemetery
    (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
  • Meadows Valley Cemetery
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
  • Imnaha Cemetery
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
  • Slate Creek Cemetery
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)

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 Rankin Mill in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Rankin Mill.

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

  • Imnaha
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
  • Meadows
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Meadows is located in Adams County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Meadows

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

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 Rankin Mill:

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 Rankin Mill, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.