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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 East Grand Rapids (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 East Grand Rapids. 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 East Grand Rapids ...

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 East Grand Rapids: E. Grand Rpds.

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.

East Grand Rapids 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 East Grand Rapids. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to East Grand Rapids:

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

Cemeteries Near East Grand Rapids ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of East Grand Rapids.

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 East Grand Rapids covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

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

  • Garfield Park Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Garfield Park Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Garfield Park Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Woodlawn Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Oak Grove Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Oak Grove Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Oak Grove Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Maple Grove Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Maple Grove Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Maple Grove Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Martin Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Martin Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Martin Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Graceland Mausoleum
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Graceland Mausoleum
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Graceland Mausoleum have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Fulton Street Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Fulton Street Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Fulton Street Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • St. Andrews Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
  • Oakhill Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
  • Rest Lawn Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Rest Lawn Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Rest Lawn Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Teeple Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Teeple Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Teeple Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Fair Plains Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Fair Plains Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Fair Plains Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Continue List   (300 more) ...
    • Chapel Hill Memorial Gardens
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Chapel Hill Memorial Gardens
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Chapel Hill Memorial Gardens have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Mason Cemetery
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Mason Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Mason Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Resurrection Cemetery
      (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Resurrection Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Resurrection 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>

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

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

  • East Paris
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for East Paris have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for East Paris
    • East Paris is located in Kent County
  • Grand Rapids
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Cascade
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Cascade have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cascade
    • Cascade is located in Kent County
  • Ada
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Ada have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ada
    • Ada is located in Kent County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Ada <1>
  • Dutton
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
  • Chauncey
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Chauncey have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chauncey
    • Chauncey is located in Kent County
  • Belmont
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
  • Grandville
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
  • Carlisle
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Jenison
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
  • Alaska
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Alaska have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Alaska
    • Alaska is located in Kent County
  • Whitneyville
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Whitneyville have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Whitneyville
    • Whitneyville is located in Kent County
  • Continue List   (16 more) ...
    • Alpine
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Alpine have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Alpine
      • Alpine is located in Kent County
    • Kinney
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Kinney. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kinney
      • Kinney is located in Kent County
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Kinney
      • From East Grand Rapids to Kinney
    • Byron Center
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)

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

Newspapers Published in East Grand Rapids ...

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 257 newspapers that have been published in the area around East Grand Rapids.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of East Grand Rapids, there are papers which were published within 26 miles [41.8 km]<6>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for East Grand Rapids.

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 either 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 East Grand Rapids:

The official website for East Grand Rapids: www.eastgr.org/

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

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>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>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.
<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 East Grand Rapids, 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 things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- East Grand Rapids) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in East Grand Rapids. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 42.9447, Longitude: -85.6100    









 

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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