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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 Fortune Lake (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 Fortune Lake. 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 Fortune Lake ...

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 Fortune Lake: Fortune Lk.

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.

Fortune Lake is located in Iron 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 Iron County: Baraga, Dickinson, Gogebic, Houghton, Marquette, Ontonagon, Florence (WI), Forest (WI) & Vilas (WI).

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

  • Iron County     (The home county of Fortune Lake)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Fortune Lake, with the one closest to Fortune Lake listed first.
    • Clinch ‑ Historic
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Clinch. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<1>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clinch
      • Clinch is located in Iron County
    • Crystal Falls
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Alpha
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Chicagon
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Chicagon. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<1>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chicagon
      • Chicagon is located in Iron County
    • Mastodon
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Mastodon. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<1>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mastodon
      • Mastodon is located in Iron County
    • Stager
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Stager. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<1>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stager
      • Stager is located in Iron County
    • Pentoga
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pentoga
      • Pentoga is located in Iron County
    • Bates Junction
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Bates Junction. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<1>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bates Junction
      • Bates Junction is located in Iron County
    • Amasa
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
    • Gaastra
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Gaastra have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gaastra
      • Gaastra is located in Iron County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 324 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Gaastra <2>
    • Caspian
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
    • Iron River
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Iron River have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Iron River
      • Iron River is located in Iron County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,827 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Iron River <2>
    • Stambaugh
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Stambaugh have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stambaugh
      • Stambaugh is located in Iron County
  • Dickinson County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Fortune Lake, with the one closest to Fortune Lake listed first.
    • Channing
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
    • Sagola
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
    • Floodwood
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Floodwood. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<1>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Floodwood
      • Floodwood is located in Dickinson County
    • Turner
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Turner have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Turner
      • Turner is located in Dickinson County
    • Kingsford
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Kingsford have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kingsford
      • Kingsford is located in Dickinson County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 4,923 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Kingsford <2>
    • Iron Mountain
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Felch Mountain
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Felch Mountain
      • Felch Mountain is located in Dickinson County
    • Quinnesec
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Felch
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
    • Ralph
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
  • Marquette County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Fortune Lake, with the one closest to Fortune Lake listed first.
    • Witbeck
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Witbeck. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<1>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Witbeck
      • Witbeck is located in Marquette County
    • Republic
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Republic
      • Republic is located in Marquette County
  • Florence County (WI)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Fortune Lake, with the one closest to Fortune Lake listed first.
    • Florence
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Florence
      • Florence is located in Florence County (WI)
    • Commonwealth
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Commonwealth. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<1>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Commonwealth
      • Commonwealth is located in Florence County (WI)
    • Tipler
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tipler
      • Tipler is located in Florence County (WI)
    • Fern ‑ Historic
      (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Fern. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<1>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fern
      • Fern is located in Florence County (WI)
    • Spread Eagle
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Spread Eagle. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<1>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spread Eagle
      • Spread Eagle is located in Florence County (WI)
    • Aurora
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Aurora
      • Aurora is located in Florence County (WI)
  • Forest County (WI)
    • Nelma
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nelma
      • Nelma is located in Forest County (WI)
  • Marinette County (WI)
    • Niagara
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Niagara have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Niagara
      • Niagara is located in Marinette County (WI)
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,535 people

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

Cemeteries Near Fortune Lake ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Fortune Lake.

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

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

  • Indian Burial Ground
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Indian Burial Ground
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Indian Burial Ground have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Crystal Falls City Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Crystal Falls City Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Crystal Falls City Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Bates Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Bates Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Bates Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Hematite Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Hematite Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Hematite Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Iron River Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
  • Stambaugh Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
  • Stambaugh Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Stambaugh Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Stambaugh Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Resthaven Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Resthaven Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Resthaven Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • St. Marys Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Marys Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Marys Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Woodlawn Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Woodlawn Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Woodlawn Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Martin Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
    • 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.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Sagola Twp. Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
  • Continue List   (14 more) ...
    • Rosehill Cemetery
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
    • Long Lake Cemetery
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Long Lake Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Long Lake Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Lakeview Cemetery
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Lakeview Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Lakeview 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.<5>

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

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

  • Crystal Falls
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
  • Panola
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Panola have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Panola
    • Panola is located in Iron County
  • Mastodon
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Mastodon. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<1>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mastodon
    • Mastodon is located in Iron County
  • Stager
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Stager. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<1>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stager
    • Stager is located in Iron County
  • Amasa
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
  • Iron River
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Iron River have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Iron River
    • Iron River is located in Iron County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,827 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Iron River <2>
  • Stambaugh
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Stambaugh have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stambaugh
    • Stambaugh is located in Iron County
  • Mansfield ‑ Historic
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Mansfield. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<1>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mansfield
    • Mansfield is located in Iron County
  • Ridgetop
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Ridgetop have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ridgetop
    • Ridgetop is located in Florence County (WI)
  • Florence
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Florence
    • Florence is located in Florence County (WI)
  • Commonwealth
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Commonwealth. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<1>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Commonwealth
    • Commonwealth is located in Florence County (WI)
  • Sagola
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
  • Continue List   (12 more) ...
    • Atkinson ‑ Historic
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Atkinson. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<1>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Atkinson
      • Atkinson is located in Iron County
    • Beechwood
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Beechwood have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Beechwood
      • Beechwood is located in Iron County
    • Randville
      (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Randville have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Randville
      • Randville is located in Dickinson County

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

Newspapers Published in Fortune Lake ...

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 27 newspapers that have been published in the area around Fortune Lake.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Fortune Lake, there are papers which were published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<6>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Fortune Lake.

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 Fortune Lake:

Unfortunately, we don't know of a website for Fortune Lake. If you can help, please contact us through our Feedback Page.

The official website for Iron County: www.iron.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>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<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>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 Fortune Lake, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<6>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Fortune Lake) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Fortune Lake. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 46.0947, Longitude: -88.4162       In this case, the coordinates for Fortune Lake have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 28 Apr 2025