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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 Smiths Ferry (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 Smiths Ferry. 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 Smiths Ferry ...

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.

  • A typical abbreviation for Smiths Ferry: Smiths Fry. (or less commonly used: Smiths Frry.)
  • While the name of this community is Smiths Ferry, be aware that it's the common practice of mapmakers to remove the apostrophe from possessive names<1>. So Smiths Ferry may originally have been Smith's Ferry.

    Sometimes the trailing 's' might be dropped altogether, in which case Smiths Ferry might be written as Smith Ferry.

You might be interested in other communities that are also named Smiths Ferry. More information can be found on our Tidbits & Trivia Page for Smiths Ferry.

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 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.

Smiths Ferry is located in Valley 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 Valley County: Adams, Boise, Custer, Gem & Idaho.

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

  • Valley County     (The home county of Smiths Ferry)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Smiths Ferry, with the one closest to Smiths Ferry listed first.
    • Belvidere
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
      • Belvidere is located in Valley County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Belvidere
    • Cascade
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
    • Donnelly
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
    • Roseberry
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
      • Roseberry is located in Valley County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Roseberry
  • Adams County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Smiths Ferry, with the one closest to Smiths Ferry listed first.
    • Indian Valley
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Mesa
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
  • Boise County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Smiths Ferry, with the one closest to Smiths Ferry listed first.
    • Crouch
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
      • Crouch is located in Boise County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crouch
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 192 people
    • Banks
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
    • Garden Valley
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Brownlee
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
      • Brownlee is located in Boise County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brownlee
    • Grimes Pass
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
      • Grimes Pass is located in Boise County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grimes Pass
    • Quartzburg
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
      • Quartzburg is located in Boise County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Quartzburg
    • Placerville
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
    • Horseshoe Bend
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
    • Lowman
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Gem County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Smiths Ferry, with the one closest to Smiths Ferry listed first.
    • Ola
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Sweet
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Montour
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Montour is located in Gem County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Montour
  • Washington County
    • Crane ‑ Historic
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
      • Crane is located in Washington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crane

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

Cemeteries Near Smiths Ferry ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Smiths Ferry.

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 Smiths Ferry - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • Alpha Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Ola Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Margaret Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Margaret Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Margaret Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located outside and to the southwest of Cascade.
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #264365 <3>
  • Garden Valley Pioneer Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Brownlee Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
  • Grimes Pass Cemetery
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
  • Indian Valley Cemetery
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
  • Sweet Cemetery
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Sweet-Montour Cemetery
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Pioneer Cemetery
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
  • Homes Cemetery
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
  • IOOF Cemetery
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
  • Old Catholic Cemetery
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
  • Miner Grave
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)

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.<5>

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

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

  • Ola
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Garden Valley
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Crane ‑ Historic
    (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
    • Crane is located in Washington County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crane
  • Quartzburg
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
    • Quartzburg is located in Boise County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Quartzburg
  • Sweet
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Placerville
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
  • Pioneerville
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Pioneerville is located in Boise County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pioneerville
  • Horseshoe Bend
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)

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

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we 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 Smiths Ferry:

Footnotes ...

<1>It's generally believed that possessive apostrophes are removed to prevent confusion on maps where the apostrophe may be confused with a cartographic symbol. While this is generally true, it's not uncommon to find possessive apostrophes in administrative names (such as towns or counties).
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<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 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Smiths Ferry) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<5>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 Smiths Ferry, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.