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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 Burnips (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 Burnips. 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 Burnips ...

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 have occurred.

Prior to its current name of Burnips, it was known as Burnip's Corners.

Burnips was originally named Salem Center

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.

A Few Details for Burnips ...

While it's still very early in our research, we found that:

  • The naming (or the toponymy) of Burnips: Named after James Burnips, a local landowner.
  • Burnips was settled in 1856.

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 hospitals and doctors 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.

Burnips is located in Allegan County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Allegan County: Barry, Kalamazoo, Kent, Ottawa & Van Buren.

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

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

Cemeteries Near Burnips ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Burnips.

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

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

  • Salem Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Salem Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Salem Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Burnips Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Burnips Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Burnips Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • St. Mary's Catholic Church of New Salem Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Mary's Catholic Church of New Salem Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Mary's Catholic Church of New Salem Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Bentheim Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Bentheim Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Bentheim Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Tanner Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Tanner Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Tanner Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • North Dorr Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the North Dorr Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the North Dorr Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Star Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Star Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Star Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Overisel Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Overisel Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Overisel Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jamestown Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Jamestown Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Jamestown Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Diamond Springs Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Diamond Springs Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Diamond Springs Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Dowd Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Dowd Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Dowd Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Forest Grove Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Forest Grove Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Forest Grove Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Continue List   (266 more) ...
    • St. Sebastian's Catholic Cemetery
      (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Sebastian's Catholic Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Sebastian's Catholic Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • East Drenthe Cemetery
      (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the East Drenthe Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the East Drenthe Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Zutphen Cemetery
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Zutphen Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Zutphen Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.

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.<4>

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

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

  • New Salem
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
  • Gitchel
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Gitchel have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gitchel
    • Gitchel is located in Ottawa County
  • Forest Grove
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
  • Diamond Springs
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
  • North Dorr
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for North Dorr have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Dorr
    • North Dorr is located in Kent County
  • Oakland
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Oakland have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oakland
    • Oakland is located in Allegan County
  • Jamestown
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
  • Zutphen
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Zutphen have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Zutphen
    • Zutphen is located in Ottawa County
  • Hilliards
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Dorr
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
  • Drenthe
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Drenthe. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Drenthe
    • Drenthe is located in Ottawa County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Drenthe
    • From Burnips to Drenthe
  • Vriesland
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Vriesland have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Vriesland
    • Vriesland is located in Ottawa County
  • Continue List   (15 more) ...
    • South Monterey
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
    • Hopkins
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Hopkins have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hopkins
      • Hopkins is located in Allegan County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 605 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Hopkins <1>
    • Moline
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)

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

Newspapers Published in Burnips ...

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 162 newspapers that have been published in the area around Burnips.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Burnips, there are papers which were published within 23 miles [37 km]<5>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Burnips.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first visit 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 Burnips:

Unfortunately, we don't know of a website for Burnips. If you can help, please contact us through our Feedback Page.

The official website for Allegan County: www.allegancounty.org/

The official website for State of Michigan: https://www.michigan.gov/

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>An 'estimated' location is one where we have been given GPS coordinates, but are unable to verify the accuracy of those coordinates. That said, we have some confidence that we have placed the marker near the actual location. A typical reason for being unable to verify a location is that it might be on private property or maybe historic and gone without an obvious trace.
<3>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.
<4>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 Burnips, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<5>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Burnips) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Burnips. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 42.7318, Longitude: -85.8406    









 

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This page was last modified/updated: 28 Apr 2025