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The Commemorative Quarter for Michigan





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 Byron Center (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 Byron Center. 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 Byron Center ...

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.

Another variation: Byron Centre.

  • A typical abbreviation for Byron Center: Byron Ctr. (or less commonly used: Byron Cen., Byron Cent. or Byron Cntr.)

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 northeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors and hospitals were in the next county to the east. 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 east 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.

Byron Center is located in Kent 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 Kent County: Allegan, Barry, Ionia, Montcalm, Muskegon, Newaygo & Ottawa.

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

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

Cemeteries Near Byron Center ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Byron Center.

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

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

  • Winegar Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Winegar Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Winegar Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Winegar Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Winegar Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Winegar Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Winchester Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Winchester Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Winchester Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • St. Sebastian's Catholic Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
    • 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.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Weaver Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Weaver Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Weaver Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Boynton Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Boynton Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Boynton Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Kent Memorial Gardens
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Kent Memorial Gardens
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Kent Memorial Gardens have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • North Dorr Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • 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.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jones Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Jones Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Jones Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Blain Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Blain Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Blain Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Hanley Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Hanley Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Hanley Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Star Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • 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.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Continue List   (284 more) ...
    • St. Mary's Catholic Church of New Salem Cemetery
      (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
      • 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.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • South Gaines Cemetery
      (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the South Gaines Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the South Gaines Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Pine Hill Cemetery
      (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Pine Hill Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Pine Hill Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> 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>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Byron Center had a population of 225 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service.

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

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Byron Center ...

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 241 newspapers that have been published in the area around Byron Center.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Byron Center. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Byron Center and those printed in the larger area surrounding Byron Center.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 24 miles [38.6 km]<5> of Byron Center.

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 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 Byron Center:

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

The official website for Kent County: www.accesskent.com/

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

Footnotes ...

<1>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.
<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>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 Byron Center, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<5>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Byron Center) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Byron Center. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 42.8123, Longitude: -85.7229    









 

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In closing, please keep in mind that we can not guarantee the accuracy or timeliness of the information on this website, so use with care. We encourage you to double-check the information that is critical to you.

If you've found an error or have additional information that you would like to share, please don't hesitate to write: Click here to contact us.

This page was last modified/updated: 28 Apr 2025