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Our Genealogy Helper

Introduction ...

So far, we found very little information about Topaz. The little that we've found leads us believe that the community is historic.<1>

We've added Topaz to our Gazetteer with the hope that we can develop more information. If you can help us with Topaz, please Contact Us.

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 Topaz (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 Topaz. 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 southwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors and hospitals were in the next county to the west. 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 west 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.

Although our information shows that the community of Topaz is historic, it would have been located within present day Bannock 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 Bannock County: Bingham, Caribou, Franklin, Oneida & Power.

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

  • Bannock County     (The home county of Topaz)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Topaz, with the one closest to Topaz listed first.
    • Lava Hot Springs
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Lava Hot Springs have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lava Hot Springs
      • Lava Hot Springs is located in Bannock County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 431 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Lava Hot Springs <3>
    • McCammon
      (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for McCammon have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for McCammon
      • McCammon is located in Bannock County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 833 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for McCammon <3>
    • Arimo
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Arimo have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Arimo
      • Arimo is located in Bannock County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 368 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Arimo <3>
    • Robin
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Robin
      • Robin is located in Bannock County
    • Downey
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
    • Inkom
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Inkom have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Inkom
      • Inkom is located in Bannock County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 910 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Inkom <3>
    • Swanlake
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
    • Pocatello
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Alameda
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Alameda
      • Alameda is located in Bannock County
    • Chubbuck
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Caribou County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Topaz, with the one closest to Topaz listed first.
    • Bancroft
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Bancroft have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bancroft
      • Bancroft is located in Caribou County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 395 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Bancroft <3>
    • Grace
      (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Grace have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grace
      • Grace is located in Caribou County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 942 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Grace <3>
    • Chesterfield ‑ Historic
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chesterfield
      • Chesterfield is located in Caribou County
    • Five Points ‑ Historic
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Five Points
      • Five Points is located in Caribou County
    • Bench
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bench
      • Bench is located in Caribou County
    • Soda Springs
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Soda Springs have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Soda Springs
      • Soda Springs is located in Caribou County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 3,003 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Soda Springs <3>
    • Conda
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Conda have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Conda
      • Conda is located in Caribou County
  • Franklin County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Topaz, with the one closest to Topaz listed first.
    • Thatcher
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Thatcher have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Thatcher
      • Thatcher is located in Franklin County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Thatcher <3>
    • Oxford
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oxford
      • Oxford is located in Franklin County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 52 people
    • Clifton
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
  • Oneida County
    • Saint Johns
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Saint Johns
      • Saint Johns is located in Oneida County
  • Power County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Topaz, with the one closest to Topaz listed first.
    • Pauline
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pauline
      • Pauline is located in Power County
    • Arbon
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)

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

Newspapers Published in Topaz ...

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 15 newspapers that have been published in the area around Topaz.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Topaz, there are papers which were published within 25 miles [40.2 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Topaz.

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 Topaz:

Cemeteries Near Topaz ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Topaz.

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

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

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.

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

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

  • McCammon
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for McCammon have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for McCammon
    • McCammon is located in Bannock County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 833 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for McCammon <3>
  • Downey
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
  • Inkom
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Inkom have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Inkom
    • Inkom is located in Bannock County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 910 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Inkom <3>
  • Swanlake
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
  • Pocatello
    (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 Topaz. See our List of 1890's Communities around Topaz.

The official website for Bannock County: www.co.bannock.id.us/

The official website for State of Idaho: www.state.id.us/

Footnotes ...

<1>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 Topaz, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<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>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<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- Topaz) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Topaz. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 42.6271, Longitude: -112.0855       In this case, the coordinates for Topaz have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>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.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024