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Our Genealogy Helper

Introduction ...

So far, we found very little information about Depew. The little that we've found leads us believe that the community is historic.<1>

We've added Depew to our Gazetteer with the hope that we can develop more information. If you can help us with Depew, please Contact Us.

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 Depew (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 Depew. 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 Depew ...

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.

Depew has also been known as: Depew Siding.

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 southwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors were in the next county to the west. 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 west 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.

Although our information shows that the community of Depew is historic, it would have been located within present day Macomb 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 Macomb County: Lapeer, Oakland, Saint Clair & Wayne.

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

  • Macomb County     (The home county of Depew)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Depew, with the one closest to Depew listed first.
    • Shelby ‑ Historic
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Shelby. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shelby
      • Shelby is located in Macomb County
      • Shelby has also been known as:
      • Shelby Crossing
      • Shelby Station
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Shelby
      • From Depew to Shelby
    • Disco ‑ Historic
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Shelby Village ‑ Historic
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
    • Utica
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Cooley's Corners ‑ Historic
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Prestonville ‑ Historic
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Prestonville. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Prestonville
      • Prestonville is located in Macomb County
      • Prestonville has also been known as:
      • Preston Corners
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Prestonville
      • From Depew to Prestonville
    • Washington
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Dresden Village ‑ Historic
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Mount Vernon ‑ Historic
      (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Frankfort ‑ Historic
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Frankfort. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Frankfort
      • Frankfort is located in Macomb County
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Frankfort
      • From Depew to Frankfort
    • Macomb
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Crissmanville ‑ Historic
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Sterling Heights
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Sterling Heights have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sterling Heights
      • Sterling Heights is located in Macomb County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 131,709 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Sterling Heights <3>
  • Genesee County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Depew, with the one closest to Depew listed first.
    • Goodrich
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Atlas
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Atlas have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Atlas
      • Atlas is located in Genesee County
  • Lapeer County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Depew, with the one closest to Depew listed first.
    • Almont
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Almont have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Almont
      • Almont is located in Lapeer County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,815 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Almont <3>
    • Dryden
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
    • Metamora
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Imlay City
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
    • Hunters Creek
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Attica
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Attica have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Attica
      • Attica is located in Lapeer County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Attica <3>
    • Hadley
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Hadley have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hadley
      • Hadley is located in Lapeer County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Hadley <3>
    • Lapeer
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Lapeer have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lapeer
      • Lapeer is located in Lapeer County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 8,452 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Lapeer <3>
    • Lum
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
  • Oakland County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Depew, with the one closest to Depew listed first.
    • Yates
      (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Yates. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Yates
      • Yates is located in Oakland County
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Yates
      • From Depew to Yates
    • Stony Creek
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Rochester
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
    • Lake Orion Junction ‑ Historic
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Rochester Hills
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
    • Troy
      (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Goodison
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Goodison. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Goodison
      • Goodison is located in Oakland County
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Goodison
      • From Depew to Goodison
    • Kline ‑ Historic
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Kline. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kline
      • Kline is located in Oakland County
      • Kline has also been known as:
      • Kline Settlement
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Kline
      • From Depew to Kline
    • Big Beaver
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Big Beaver. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Big Beaver
      • Big Beaver is located in Oakland County
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Big Beaver
      • From Depew to Big Beaver
    • Auburn Heights
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Auburn Hills
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Decker ‑ Historic
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Decker. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Decker
      • Decker is located in Oakland County
      • Decker has also been known as:
      • Decker Settlement
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Decker
      • From Depew to Decker
    • Campbells Corner
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
  • Saint Clair County
  • Wayne County

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

Cemeteries Near Depew ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Depew.

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

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

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

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

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

Newspapers Published in Depew ...

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 101 newspapers that have been published in the area around Depew.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Depew, there are papers which were published within 21 miles [33.8 km]<6>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Depew.

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 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 Depew:

The official website for Macomb County: www.macombcountymi.gov/

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

Footnotes ...

<1>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 Depew, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<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>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<4>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.
<5>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.
<6>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 from Point A (ie- Depew) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Depew. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 42.6680, Longitude: -83.0831    









 

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This page was last modified/updated: 28 Apr 2025