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 Lansing (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 Lansing. 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 Lansing ...
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 occur.
For example, a typical abbreviation for East Lansing: E. Landing
You might be interested in other communities that are also named East Lansing. More information can be found on our Tidbits & Trivia Page for East Lansing.
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 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.
East Lansing is primarily located in Ingham County. A portion of East Lansing extends into Clinton County.
To see how the shape of Michigan's counties may have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.
The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Ingham County: Clinton, Eaton, Jackson, Livingston, Shiawassee & Washtenaw.
Below are the counties that are near East Lansing. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to East Lansing:
- Ingham County (The home county of East Lansing)
- The following are listed by their distance from East Lansing, with the one closest to East Lansing listed first.
- Okemos
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
- North Lansing
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
- North Lansing is located in Ingham County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Lansing
- Lansing
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
- Haslett
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
- Edgemont Park
(5 miles [8 km] to the west)
- Edgemont Park is located in Ingham County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Edgemont Park
- Holt
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
- Meridian
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
- Meridian is located in Ingham County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Meridian
- Williamston
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
- Mason
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
- Pollok ‑ Historic
(11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
- Pollok is located in Ingham County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pollok
- Pollok has also been known as:
- Pollock
- Dansville
(15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
- Webberville
(16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
- North Leslie
(17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
- North Leslie is located in Ingham County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Leslie
- Calhoun County
- Duck Lake
(27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
- Duck Lake is located in Calhoun County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Duck Lake
- Clinton County
- The following are listed by their distance from East Lansing, with the one closest to East Lansing listed first.
- Clinton Village
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
- Clinton Village is located in Clinton County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clinton Village
- Bath
(5 miles [8 km] to the north)
- Gunnisonville
(5 miles [8 km] to the north)
- Gunnisonville is located in Clinton County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gunnisonville
- East DeWitt
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
- East DeWitt is located in Clinton County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for East DeWitt
- De Witt
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
- Price
(13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
- Price is located in Clinton County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Price
- Eagle
(16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
- Saint Johns
(18 miles [29 km] to the north)
- Shepardsville
(18 miles [29 km] to the north)
- Shepardsville is located in Clinton County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shepardsville
- Ovid
(19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
- Westphalia
(20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
- Duplain
(21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
- Duplain is located in Clinton County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Duplain
- Fowler
(22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
- Eaton County
- The following are listed by their distance from East Lansing, with the one closest to East Lansing listed first.
- Waverly
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
- Waverly is located in Eaton County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Waverly
- Millett
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
- Millett is located in Eaton County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Millett
- Millett has also been known as:
- Milletts
- Dimondale
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
- West Windsor
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
- West Windsor is located in Eaton County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West Windsor
- Kingsland
(13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
- Kingsland is located in Eaton County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kingsland
- Grand Ledge
(13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
- Potterville
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
- Petrieville
(15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
- Petrieville is located in Eaton County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Petrieville
- Eaton Rapids
(17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
- Needmore
(19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
- Needmore is located in Eaton County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Needmore
- Mulliken
(20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
- Charlotte
(21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
- Gresham
(21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
- Gresham is located in Eaton County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gresham
- Genesee County
- Gaines
(30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
- Gratiot County
- Bannister
(27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
- Ionia County
- The following are listed by their distance from East Lansing, with the one closest to East Lansing listed first.
- Portland
(23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
- Pewamo
(25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
- Lyons
(28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
- Matherton
(29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)
- Matherton is located in Ionia County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Matherton
- Muir
(29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)
- West Sebewa
(29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
- West Sebewa is located in Ionia County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West Sebewa
- Hubbardston
(30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
- Jackson County
- The following are listed by their distance from East Lansing, with the one closest to East Lansing listed first.
- Berryville
(22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
- Berryville is located in Jackson County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Berryville
- Rives Junction
(24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
- Rives Junction is located in Jackson County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rives Junction
- Pleasant Lake
(25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
- Tompkins
(25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
- Tompkins is located in Jackson County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tompkins
- Munith
(26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
- Springport
(26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
- Devereaux
(30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
- Devereaux is located in Jackson County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Devereaux
- Livingston County
- The following are listed by their distance from East Lansing, with the one closest to East Lansing listed first.
- Fowlerville
(21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
- Parkers Corners
(22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
- Parkers Corners is located in Livingston County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Parkers Corners
- Plainfield
(25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
- Plainfield is located in Livingston County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Plainfield
- Cohoctah
(27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
- Cohoctah is located in Livingston County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cohoctah
- Gregory
(27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
- Oak Grove
(28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
- Oak Grove is located in Livingston County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oak Grove
- Deer Creek
(29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
- Deer Creek is located in Livingston County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Deer Creek
- Howell
(29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
- Anderson
(30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
- Anderson is located in Livingston County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Anderson
- Unadilla
(30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
- Unadilla is located in Livingston County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Unadilla
- Saginaw County
- The following are listed by their distance from East Lansing, with the one closest to East Lansing listed first.
- Chapin
(28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
- Chapin is located in Saginaw County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chapin
- Fenmore
(30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
- Fenmore is located in Saginaw County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fenmore
- Shiawassee County
- The following are listed by their distance from East Lansing, with the one closest to East Lansing listed first.
- Shaftsburg
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
- Shaftsburg is located in Shiawassee County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shaftsburg
- Laingsburg
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
- Perry
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
- Morrice
(16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
- Nicholson
(18 miles [29 km] to the east)
- Nicholson is located in Shiawassee County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nicholson
- Burton
(21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
- Burton is located in Shiawassee County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Burton
- Five Points
(22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
- Five Points is located in Shiawassee County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Five Points
- Bancroft
(23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
- Owosso
(23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
- Smith Crossing
(23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
- Smith Crossing is located in Shiawassee County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Smith Crossing
- Middletown
(24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
- Middletown is located in Shiawassee County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Middletown
- Newburg
(24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
- Newburg is located in Shiawassee County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Newburg
- Corunna
(25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
For an expanded list of the communities that are closest to East Lansing, see our County-by-County Page for East Lansing.
Cemeteries Near East Lansing ...
Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of East Lansing.
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.
Although we don't have the information ourselves, if you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our list of websites on our Genealogy Helper Page for East Lansing - one of the links might be able to help.
If not found below, our Cemetery List for East Lansing covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.
The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from East Lansing, with the one closest to East Lansing listed first.
- Mt. Hope Cemetery
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
- Evergreen Cemetery
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
- Glendale Cemetery
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
- River Bend Cemetery
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
- Foote - Rockwell Cemetery
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
- East Lawn Memorial Gardens
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
- Ingham County Home Cemetery
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
- North Cemetery
(5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
- Maple Ridge Cemetery
(5 miles [8 km] to the south)
- Gunnisonville Cemetery
(5 miles [8 km] to the north)
- Leek Cemetery
(5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
- Leek Cemetery
(5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
- Continue List (281 more) ...
- Pleasant Hill Cemetery
(5 miles [8 km] to the north)
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pleasant Hill Cemetery
- To give a relative sense of its location, the Pleasant Hill Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located
- Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #1410 <2>
- St. Joseph Cemetery
(5 miles [8 km] to the west)
- Deepdale Memorial Park
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
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.<3>
While we didn't find East Lansing in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of East Lansing.
These communities are listed based on their distance from East Lansing, with the one closest to East Lansing listed first.
- Okemos
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
- North Lansing
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
- North Lansing is located in Ingham County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Lansing
- Lansing
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
- Gunnisonville
(5 miles [8 km] to the north)
- Gunnisonville is located in Clinton County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gunnisonville
- Bath
(5 miles [8 km] to the north)
- Holt
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
- Meridian
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
- Meridian is located in Ingham County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Meridian
- Millett
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
- Millett is located in Eaton County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Millett
- Millett has also been known as:
- Milletts
- Packard
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
- Packard is located in Eaton County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Packard
- De Witt
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
- Dimondale
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
- Mason
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
- Continue List (14 more) ...
- Williamston
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
- Shaftsburg
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
- Shaftsburg is located in Shiawassee County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shaftsburg
- North Aurelius
(11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
- North Aurelius is located in Ingham County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Aurelius
We've also created an expanded list of communities that existed in the 1890's and were located in the area around East Lansing. See our List of 1890's Communities around East Lansing.
Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of East Lansing ...
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 125 newspapers that have been published in the area around East Lansing.
We have organized these newspapers into two lists:
- A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of East Lansing. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of East Lansing and those printed in the larger area surrounding East Lansing.
- An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<4> of East Lansing.
Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...
When we do our genealogical research, we first visit 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 East Lansing:
- Websites specific to Michigan
- Pages specific to Ingham County
- Genealogy information for nearby counties
- Calhoun County
- Clinton County
- Eaton County
- Genesee County
- Gratiot County
- Ionia County
- Jackson County
- Livingston County
- Saginaw County
- Shiawassee County
- Cemetery Information and Directories for Michigan
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 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. |
| <3> | 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 Lansing, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy. |
| <4> | 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- East Lansing) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'. |