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A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
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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 River Grove (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 River Grove. 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 River Grove ...

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.

For example, a typical abbreviation for River Grove: River Grv.

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

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.

River Grove is located in Cook 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 Cook County: DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry, Will, Lake (IN) & Berrien (MI).

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

  • Cook County     (The home county of River Grove)
  • DuPage County
    • The following are listed by their distance from River Grove, with the one closest to River Grove listed first.
    • Bensenville
      (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Elmhurst
      (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • South Elmhurst
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Villa Park
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
      • Villa Park is located in DuPage County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Villa Park
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 21,291 people
    • Wood Dale
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Oak Brook Terrace
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
      • Oak Brook Terrace is located in DuPage County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oak Brook Terrace
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,094 people
    • Oak Brook
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Utopia
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Addison
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Hinsdale
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
    • York Center
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
      • York Center is located in DuPage County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for York Center
    • Lombard
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
    • Clarendon Hills
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
  • Kane County
    • The following are listed by their distance from River Grove, with the one closest to River Grove listed first.
    • Coleman
      (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
    • East Dundee
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Batavia
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
    • Elgin
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
    • Geneva
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
    • Saint Charles
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
    • South Elgin
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
      • South Elgin is located in Kane County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Elgin
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 24,646 people
    • Carpentersville
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Mooseheart
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
    • Sleepy Hollow
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Aurora
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Bonnie
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
      • Bonnie is located in Kane County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bonnie
      • Bonnie has also been known as:
      • Bonnie Valley
    • North Aurora
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
      • North Aurora is located in Kane County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Aurora
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 18,144 people
  • Kendall County
    • The following are listed by their distance from River Grove, with the one closest to River Grove listed first.
    • Boulder Hill
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Boulder Hill is located in Kendall County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Boulder Hill
    • Montgomery
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Lake County
    • The following are listed by their distance from River Grove, with the one closest to River Grove listed first.
    • Braeside
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
      • Braeside is located in Lake County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Braeside
    • Deerfield
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
    • Ravinia
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
      • Ravinia is located in Lake County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ravinia
    • Buffalo Grove
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Highland Park
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
    • Riverwoods
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
    • Aptakisic
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
    • Bannockburn
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
    • Highwood
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
    • Lincolnshire
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
    • Prairie View
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
    • Deer Park
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Kildeer
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
  • McHenry County
    • The following are listed by their distance from River Grove, with the one closest to River Grove listed first.
    • Fox River Grove
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Algonquin
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Cary
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
      • Cary is located in McHenry County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cary
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 17,929 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Cary <1>
    • Trout Valley
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
      • Trout Valley is located in McHenry County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Trout Valley
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 508 people
    • Lake-in-the-Hills
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Island Lake
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Island Lake is located in McHenry County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Island Lake
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 7,951 people
    • Oakwood Hills
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Oakwood Hills is located in McHenry County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oakwood Hills
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,011 people
  • Will County
  • Lake County (IN)

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

Cemeteries Near River Grove ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of River Grove.

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 River Grove - one of the links might be able to help.

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from River Grove, with the one closest to River Grove 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.<3>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that River Grove had a population of 287 people in 1895 with a post office and no railroad service. In 2020, River Grove had a population of 9,771 people.

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

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

Newspapers Published in River Grove ...

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 48 newspapers that have been published in the area around River Grove.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of River Grove, there are papers which were published within 10 miles [16.1 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for River Grove.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first turn to 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 River Grove:

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 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.
<3>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 River Grove, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<4>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- River Grove) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.