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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 Free Soil (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 Free Soil. 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 Free Soil ...

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.

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 northwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals and doctors were in the next county to the west. Almost all of the nearby churches and cemeteries were in the county to the north.

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 north 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.

Free Soil is located in Mason 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 Mason County: Lake, Manistee, Newaygo & Oceana.

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

  • Mason County     (The home county of Free Soil)
  • Lake County
  • Manistee County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Free Soil, with the one closest to Free Soil listed first.
    • Filer City
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Oak Hill
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Udell
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Eastlake
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Parkdale
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
    • Manistee
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Dublin
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
    • Douglas
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Douglas have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Douglas
      • Douglas is located in Manistee County
    • Wellston
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Norwalk
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Norwalk. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Norwalk
      • Norwalk is located in Manistee County
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Norwalk
      • From Free Soil to Norwalk
    • Brethren
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Brethren have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brethren
      • Brethren is located in Manistee County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Brethren <1>
    • Chief Lake
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Chief Lake. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chief Lake
      • Chief Lake is located in Manistee County
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Chief Lake
      • From Free Soil to Chief Lake
  • Newaygo County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Free Soil, with the one closest to Free Soil listed first.
    • Lilley
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Lilley. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lilley
      • Lilley is located in Newaygo County
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Lilley
      • From Free Soil to Lilley
    • Bitely
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Oceana County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Free Soil, with the one closest to Free Soil listed first.
    • Pentwater
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
    • French Town
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for French Town have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for French Town
      • French Town is located in Oceana County
    • Walkerville
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
    • Elbridge
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Elbridge. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elbridge
      • Elbridge is located in Oceana County
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Elbridge
      • From Free Soil to Elbridge
    • Hart
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Hart have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hart
      • Hart is located in Oceana County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,089 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Hart <1>
    • Cobmoosa
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Cobmoosa. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cobmoosa
      • Cobmoosa is located in Oceana County
      • Cobmoosa has also been known as:
      • Cob Moo Sa
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Cobmoosa
      • From Free Soil to Cobmoosa
  • Wexford County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Free Soil, with the one closest to Free Soil listed first.
    • Hoxeyville ‑ Historic
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Hoxeyville. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hoxeyville
      • Hoxeyville is located in Wexford County
      • Hoxeyville has also been known as:
      • Clay Hill
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Hoxeyville
      • From Free Soil to Hoxeyville
    • Harrietta
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Harrietta have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harrietta
      • Harrietta is located in Wexford County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 145 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Harrietta <1>
    • Yuma
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Yuma. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Yuma
      • Yuma is located in Wexford County
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Yuma
      • From Free Soil to Yuma

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

Cemeteries Near Free Soil ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Free Soil.

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Free Soil, with the one closest to Free Soil 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.<6>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Free Soil had a population of 306 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Free Soil had a population of 144 people.

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

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Free Soil ...

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 67 newspapers that have been published in the area around Free Soil.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Free Soil. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Free Soil and those printed in the larger area surrounding Free Soil.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<5> of Free Soil.

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 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 Free Soil:

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

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>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>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- Free Soil) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Free Soil. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 44.1072, Longitude: -86.2141    
<6>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 Free Soil, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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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.

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