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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 Grand Junction (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 Grand Junction. 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.

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 northeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals were in the next county to the east. 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 east 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.

Grand Junction is located in Van Buren 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 Van Buren County: Allegan, Berrien, Cass, Kalamazoo & Saint Joseph.

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

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

Cemeteries Near Grand Junction ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Grand Junction.

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

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

  • Sacred Heart Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Sacred Heart Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Sacred Heart Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Grand Junction Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Grand Junction Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Grand Junction Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Saints Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Saints Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Saints Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Thompson Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Thompson Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Thompson Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Lee Twp. Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Lee Twp. Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Lee Twp. Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Lacota Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Lacota Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Lacota Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Breedsville Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Breedsville Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Breedsville Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Pecktown Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Pecktown Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Pecktown Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Pierceson Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Pierceson Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Pierceson Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Monk Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Monk Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Monk Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Indian Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Indian Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Indian Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Arlington Hill Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
  • Continue List   (223 more) ...
    • Hoppin Cemetery
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Hoppin Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Hoppin Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Evergreen Cemetery
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Evergreen Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Evergreen Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Spring Grove Cemetery
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Spring Grove Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Spring Grove 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>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Grand Junction had a population of 188 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service.

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

  • Bloomingdale
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
  • Lacota
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
  • Lee
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Lee have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lee
    • Lee is located in Allegan County
  • Breedsville
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
  • Berlamont
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Berlamont have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Berlamont
    • Berlamont is located in Van Buren County
  • Kibbie
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
  • Bangor
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
  • Bravo
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Bravo have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bravo
    • Bravo is located in Allegan County
  • Spring Grove
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
  • Hawkhead
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
  • Glendale
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Pearl
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Pearl have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pearl
    • Pearl is located in Allegan County
  • Continue List   (15 more) ...

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

Newspapers Published in Grand Junction ...

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 111 newspapers that have been published in the area around Grand Junction.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Grand Junction, there are papers which were published within 27 miles [43.5 km]<6>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Grand Junction.

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 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 Grand Junction:

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

The official website for Van Buren County: www.vbco.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>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 Grand Junction, 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' (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- Grand Junction) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Grand Junction. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 42.4044, Longitude: -86.0725    









 

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This page was last modified/updated: 28 Apr 2025