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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 Griffin (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 Griffin. 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 southeast 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 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.

Griffin is located in Mercer County.

To see how the shape of Illinois' counties may have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Mercer County: Des Moines (IA), Louisa (IA), Henderson, Henry, Knox, Rock Island & Warren.

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

  • Mercer County     (The home county of Griffin)
  • Henderson County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Griffin, with the one closest to Griffin listed first.
    • Milroy
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Rozetta
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
  • Henry County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Griffin, with the one closest to Griffin listed first.
    • Ophiem
      (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
      • Ophiem is located in Henry County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ophiem
    • Alpha
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Lynn Center
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Orion
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Woodhull
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Andover
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
    • Osco
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Morristown
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Cambridge
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
    • Briar Bluff
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Green Rock
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
      • Green Rock is located in Henry County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Green Rock
    • Colona
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Bishop Hill
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
  • Knox County
  • Rock Island County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Griffin, with the one closest to Griffin listed first.
    • Coyne Center
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
      • Coyne Center is located in Rock Island County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Coyne Center
    • Reynolds
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Oak Grove
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
      • Oak Grove is located in Rock Island County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oak Grove
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 585 people
    • Taylor Ridge
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Coal Valley
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
    • Milan
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
    • Edgington
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Carbon Cliff
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
    • East Moline
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
      • East Moline is located in Rock Island County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for East Moline
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 20,473 people
    • Moline
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
    • Rock Island
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
    • Silvis
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
      • Silvis is located in Rock Island County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Silvis
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 7,473 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Silvis <1>
    • Andalusia
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
  • Stark County
    • La Fayette
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
  • Warren County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Griffin, with the one closest to Griffin listed first.
    • Shanghai City
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
      • Shanghai City is located in Warren County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shanghai City
    • Utah
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
    • Gerlaw
      (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
    • Eleanor
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Little York
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Surrey
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
    • Monmouth
      (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
    • Cameron
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
    • Kirkwood
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Berwick
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
  • Louisa County (IA)
    • Oakville
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
  • Muscatine County (IA)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Griffin, with the one closest to Griffin listed first.
    • Midway Beach
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
    • Fairport
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Pine Mills ‑ Historic
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
      • Pine Mills is located in Muscatine County (IA)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pine Mills
    • Pleasant Prairie
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Stockton
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Stockton is located in Muscatine County (IA)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stockton
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 189 people
  • Scott County (IA)

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

Cemeteries Near Griffin ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Griffin.

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

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

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

  • Merryman Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
  • Cable Village Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
  • Hopewell Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
  • Calvary Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
  • New Windsor Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
  • Western Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
  • German Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
  • Swedona Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
  • St. John's Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
  • Viola Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
  • Quaker Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
  • Sherrard Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
  • Continue List   (289 more) ...
    • Cooper Cemetery
      (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Friends Cemetery
      (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Oxford Cemetery
      (5 miles [8 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.<2>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that in 1895, Griffin had railroad service and no post office.

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

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

Newspapers Published in Griffin ...

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 115 newspapers that have been published in the area around Griffin.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Griffin, there are papers which were published within 26 miles [41.8 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Griffin.

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 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 Griffin:

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>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 Griffin, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<3>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Griffin) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.