RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Illinois >> DuPage County >> Utopia >> Genealogy HelperIndex...

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 Utopia (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 Utopia. 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 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 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.

Utopia is located in DuPage 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 DuPage County: Cook, Kane, Kendall & Will.

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

  • DuPage County     (The home county of Utopia)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Utopia, with the one closest to Utopia listed first.
    • Oak Brook Terrace
      (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
      • 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
    • York Center
      (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
      • York Center is located in DuPage County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for York Center
    • Oak Brook
      (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
    • Villa Park
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
      • Villa Park is located in DuPage County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Villa Park
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 21,291 people
    • South Elmhurst
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Lombard
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Elmhurst
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Clarendon Hills
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • Westmont
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • Downers Grove
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Hinsdale
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Addison
      (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Glen Ellyn
      (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
  • Cook County
  • Kane County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Utopia, with the one closest to Utopia listed first.
    • Batavia
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
    • Geneva
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
    • Coleman
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
    • Aurora
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
    • Mooseheart
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
    • Saint Charles
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
    • South Elgin
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
      • South Elgin is located in Kane County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Elgin
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 24,646 people
    • North Aurora
      (19 miles [30.6 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
    • Elgin
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Bonnie
      (21 miles [33.8 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
    • East Dundee
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Campton Hills
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
      • Campton Hills is located in Kane County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Campton Hills
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 11,063 people
      • Campton Hills has also been known as:
      • Campton Hills village
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Campton Hills <1>
    • Wasco
      (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
  • Kendall County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Utopia, with the one closest to Utopia listed first.
    • Boulder Hill
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Boulder Hill is located in Kendall County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Boulder Hill
    • Montgomery
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Oswego
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Bristol
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Yorkville
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Plattville
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Plattville is located in Kendall County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Plattville
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 257 people
  • Lake County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Utopia, with the one closest to Utopia listed first.
    • Buffalo Grove
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
    • Aptakisic
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
    • Deer Park
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
    • Deerfield
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
    • Riverwoods
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
    • Kildeer
      (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
    • Lincolnshire
      (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
    • Long Grove
      (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
    • Prairie View
      (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
    • Braeside
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
      • Braeside is located in Lake County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Braeside
    • Ravinia
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
      • Ravinia is located in Lake County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ravinia
    • Bannockburn
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
    • Highland Park
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
  • McHenry County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Utopia, with the one closest to Utopia listed first.
    • Fox River Grove
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Algonquin
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Trout Valley
      (27 miles [43.5 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
    • 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>
    • Lake-in-the-Hills
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
    • 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 Utopia, see our County-by-County Page for Utopia.

Cemeteries Near Utopia ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Utopia.

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

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Utopia, with the one closest to Utopia 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 Utopia had a population of 18 people in 1895 with a post office and no railroad service.

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

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

Newspapers Published in Utopia ...

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 35 newspapers that have been published in the area around Utopia.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Utopia, there are papers which were published within 12 miles [19.3 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Utopia.

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 helpful 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 Utopia:

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 Utopia, 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' (or 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- Utopia) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.