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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 Charlevoix (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 Charlevoix. 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 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 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.

Charlevoix is located in Charlevoix County and is the County Seat.

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 Charlevoix County: Antrim, Emmet & Otsego.

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

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

Cemeteries Near Charlevoix ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Charlevoix.

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

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

  • Brookside Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Brookside Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Brookside Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • St. Marys Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
  • Greensky Indian Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Greensky Indian Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Greensky Indian Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Barnard Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Barnard Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Barnard Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Undine Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Undine Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Undine Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Norwood Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Norwood Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Norwood Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Horton Bay Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Horton Bay Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Horton Bay Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Indian Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Indian Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Indian Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Ellsworth Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
  • Lakeside Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Lakeside Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Lakeside Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • North Bay Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the North Bay Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the North Bay Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Advance Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Advance Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Advance Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Continue List   (101 more) ...
    • Dyer Cemetery
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Dyer Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Dyer Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Antrim Cemetery
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Antrim Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Antrim Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Atwood Cemetery
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Atwood Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Atwood 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.<5>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Charlevoix had a population of 1,496 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Charlevoix had a population of 2,480 people.

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

  • Ironton
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
  • Burgess
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Burgess have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Burgess
    • Burgess is located in Charlevoix County
  • Norwood
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Norwood. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<1>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Norwood
    • Norwood is located in Charlevoix County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Norwood
    • From Charlevoix to Norwood
  • Horton Bay
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
  • Atwood
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Atwood have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Atwood
    • Atwood is located in Antrim County
  • Ellsworth
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
  • Advance
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Advance have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Advance
    • Advance is located in Charlevoix County
  • East Jordan
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for East Jordan have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for East Jordan
    • East Jordan is located in Charlevoix County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,339 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for East Jordan <3>
  • Boyne City
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
  • Eastport
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
  • Petoskey
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
  • Harbor Springs
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Continue List   (15 more) ...
    • Clarion
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Clarion have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clarion
      • Clarion is located in Charlevoix County
    • Bay View
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
    • Torch Lake
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Torch Lake have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Torch Lake
      • Torch Lake is located in Antrim County

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Charlevoix ...

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 75 newspapers that have been published in the area around Charlevoix.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Charlevoix. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Charlevoix and those printed in the larger area surrounding Charlevoix.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<6> of Charlevoix.

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 Charlevoix:

The official website for Charlevoix: www.cityofcharlevoix.org/

The official website for Charlevoix County: www.charlevoixcounty.org/

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>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.
<5>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 Charlevoix, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<6>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- Charlevoix) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Charlevoix. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 45.3181, Longitude: -85.2588    









 

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This page was last modified/updated: 28 Apr 2025