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The Commemorative Quarter for Idaho





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 Ritz (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 Ritz. 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 northeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors and hospitals 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.

Ritz is located in Boundary 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 Boundary County: Bonner, Lincoln (MT), Sanders (MT) & Pend Oreille (WA).

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

  • Boundary County     (The home county of Ritz)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Ritz, with the one closest to Ritz listed first.
    • Bonners Ferry
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
    • Moyie Springs
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Moyie Springs have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Moyie Springs
      • Moyie Springs is located in Boundary County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 795 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Moyie Springs <1>
    • Naples
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
    • Porthill
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Porthill have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Porthill
      • Porthill is located in Boundary County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Porthill <1>
    • Eastport
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Boulder City ‑ Historic
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Boulder City have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Boulder City
      • Boulder City is located in Boundary County
  • Bonner County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Ritz, with the one closest to Ritz listed first.
    • Samuels
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Samuels have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Samuels
      • Samuels is located in Bonner County
    • Colburn
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
    • Nordman
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Nordman have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nordman
      • Nordman is located in Bonner County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Nordman <1>
    • Coolin
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Coolin have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Coolin
      • Coolin is located in Bonner County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Coolin <1>
  • Lincoln County (MT)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Ritz, with the one closest to Ritz listed first.
    • Sylvanite
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sylvanite
      • Sylvanite is located in Lincoln County (MT)
    • Yaak
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Yaak
      • Yaak is located in Lincoln County (MT)
    • Troy
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Troy
      • Troy is located in Lincoln County (MT)
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 982 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Troy <1>

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

Cemeteries Near Ritz ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Ritz.

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

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

  • Grandview Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Moravia Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Moravia Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Moravia Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Paradise Valley Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Paradise Valley Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Paradise Valley Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Copeland Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
  • IOOF Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
  • Boulder Creek Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Boulder Creek Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Boulder Creek Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Forest Lawn Cemetery
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Forest Lawn Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Forest Lawn Cemetery is located outside and to the north of Erickson (BC).
    • The Forest Lawn Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Forest Lawn Municipal Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2180752 <3>
  • Pioneer Cemetery
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
  • Gold Creek Cemetery
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Gold Creek Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Gold Creek Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Pack River Cemetery
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Pack River Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Pack River Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located 8 miles [12.9 km]<4> to the southwest of Sandpoint.
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #80594 <3>

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

Newspapers Published in Ritz ...

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 10 newspapers that have been published in the area around Ritz.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Ritz, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Ritz.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we begin 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 Ritz:

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

The official website for Boundary County: www.boundary-idaho.com/

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>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.
<4>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Ritz) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Ritz. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 48.7788, Longitude: -116.3696       In this case, the coordinates for Ritz have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).




 

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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