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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 Diamond Springs (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 Diamond Springs. 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 Diamond Springs ...

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.

For example, a typical abbreviation for Diamond Springs: Diamond Spgs. (or less commonly used: Diamond Spngs. or Diamond Sprngs.)

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 southeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors 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.

Diamond Springs 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 Diamond Springs. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Diamond Springs:

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

Cemeteries Near Diamond Springs ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Diamond Springs.

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

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

  • Dowd Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles 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.
  • Diamond Springs Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
    • 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.
  • Bentheim Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
    • 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.
  • Overisel Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • 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.
  • Burnips Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • 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.
  • Brookside Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • 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.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Poplar Hill Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Poplar Hill Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Poplar Hill Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Salem Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • 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.
  • Riverside Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Riverside Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Riverside Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • East Drenthe Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • 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.
  • St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Van Dam Family Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Van Dam Family Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Van Dam Family Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Continue List   (249 more) ...
    • New Overisel Cemetery
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the New Overisel Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the New Overisel Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Old Overisel Cemetery
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Old Overisel Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Old Overisel Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Junction Cemetery
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Junction Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Junction 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>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Diamond Springs had a population of 85 people in 1895 with a post office and no railroad service.

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

  • Oakland
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • 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
  • Dunningville
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Dunningville have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dunningville
    • Dunningville is located in Allegan County
  • Hamilton
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
  • South Monterey
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Overisel
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Overisel have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Overisel
    • Overisel is located in Allegan County
  • Drenthe
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • 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 Diamond Springs to Drenthe
  • Millgrove
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Millgrove have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Millgrove
    • Millgrove is located in Allegan County
    • Millgrove has also been known as:
    • Mill Grove
  • Hopkins
    (7 miles [11.3 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>
  • New Salem
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Gitchel
    (7 miles [11.3 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
  • Fillmore
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
  • Hilliards
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
  • Continue List   (17 more) ...

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

Newspapers Published in Diamond Springs ...

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 138 newspapers that have been published in the area around Diamond Springs.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Diamond Springs, there are papers which were published within 24 miles [38.6 km]<5>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Diamond Springs.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we start with 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 Diamond Springs:

Unfortunately, we don't know of a website for Diamond Springs. 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 Diamond Springs, 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' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Diamond Springs) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Diamond Springs. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 42.6806, Longitude: -85.8980    









 

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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.

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This page was last modified/updated: 28 Apr 2025