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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 Sam (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 Sam. 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 northwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals were in the next county to the west. 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 west 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.

Sam is located in Teton 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 Teton County: Bonneville, Fremont, Madison & Teton (WY).

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

  • Teton County     (The home county of Sam)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Sam, with the one closest to Sam listed first.
    • Aline ‑ Historic
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
      • Aline is located in Teton County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Aline
    • Tetonia
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Driggs
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
    • Chapin
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Chapin is located in Teton County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chapin
    • Fox Creek
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Fox Creek is located in Teton County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fox Creek
    • Felt
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Victor
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
    • The String
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
      • The String is located in Teton County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for The String
  • Bonneville County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Sam, with the one closest to Sam listed first.
    • Swan Valley
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
    • Irwin
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
      • Irwin is located in Bonneville County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Irwin
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 250 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Irwin <1>
    • Palisades
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
      • Palisades is located in Bonneville County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Palisades
  • Fremont County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Sam, with the one closest to Sam listed first.
    • Newdale
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
    • Drummond
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
      • Drummond is located in Fremont County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Drummond
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 16 people
    • Squirrel
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
      • Squirrel is located in Fremont County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Squirrel
    • Teton
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Chester
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
    • Wilford
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
      • Wilford is located in Fremont County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wilford
    • Ashton
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
    • Marysville
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
      • Marysville is located in Fremont County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Marysville
    • Saint Anthony
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Warm River
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
      • Warm River is located in Fremont County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Warm River
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 3 people
    • Parker
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Egin
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Egin is located in Fremont County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Egin
  • Jefferson County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Sam, with the one closest to Sam listed first.
    • Ririe
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
      • Ririe is located in Jefferson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ririe
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 694 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Ririe <1>
    • Rigby
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
      • Rigby is located in Jefferson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rigby
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 4,430 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Rigby <1>
  • Madison County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Sam, with the one closest to Sam listed first.
    • Walker
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
      • Walker is located in Madison County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Walker
    • Archer
      (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
      • Archer is located in Madison County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Archer
    • Sugar City
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Rexburg
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
  • Teton County (WY)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Sam, with the one closest to Sam listed first.
    • Alta
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
    • Teton Village
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
    • Moose Wilson Road
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
      • Moose Wilson Road is located in Teton County (WY)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Moose Wilson Road
    • Wilson
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Moose
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)

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

Cemeteries Near Sam ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Sam.

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

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

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

  • Bates Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
  • Cedron Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Haden Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
  • Cache Clawson Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Driggs - Darby Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
  • Driggs Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
  • Felt Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Victor Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
  • Pratt Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pratt Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Pratt Cemetery is located less than 2 miles<2> to the northeast of Alta (WY).
    • The Pratt Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Alta Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #467387 <3>
  • Swan Valley Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
  • Farnum Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
  • Teton - Newdale Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
  • Continue List   (16 more) ...
    • Wilford Cemetery
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Chester Cemetery
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Sutton Cemetery
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sutton Cemetery
      • To give a relative sense of its location, the Sutton Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located outside and to the northeast of Archer.
      • The Sutton Cemetery has also been known as:
      • Archer Cemetery
      • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #80652 <3>

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.<4>

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

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

  • Teton
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Saint Anthony
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)

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

Newspapers Published in Sam ...

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 16 newspapers that have been published in the area around Sam.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Sam, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<2>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Sam.

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 websites either 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 Sam:

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>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Sam) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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>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 Sam, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.