RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Michigan >> Kent County >> Grandville >> Genealogy HelperIndex...










Learn About
The Commemorative
Quarter for
Michigan

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 Grandville (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 Grandville. 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 southwest 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 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.

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

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

Cemeteries Near Grandville ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Grandville.

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

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

  • Grandville Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
  • River Bend Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the River Bend Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the River Bend Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jenison Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Jenison Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Jenison Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Floral View Memorial Gardens
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Floral View Memorial Gardens
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Floral View Memorial Gardens have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Hanley Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Hanley Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Hanley Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Georgetown Twp. Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
  • Shackhuddle Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Shackhuddle Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Shackhuddle Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Shackhuddle Cemetery is located outside and to the east of Hudsonville.
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2158815 <4>
  • Rosedale Memorial Park
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
  • Resurrection Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • 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.
  • Bauer Road Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Bauer Road Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Bauer Road Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Boynton Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Boynton Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Boynton Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • St. Andrews Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
  • Continue List   (281 more) ...
    • Mt. Calvary Catholic Cemetery
      (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Church Cemetery
      (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Church Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Church Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Winchester Cemetery
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Winchester Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Winchester 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 Grandville had a population of 1,600 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Grandville had a population of 15,749 people.

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

  • Jenison
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
  • Hudsonville
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
  • Grand Rapids
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Tallmadge
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Tallmadge have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tallmadge
    • Tallmadge is located in Ottawa County
  • Jamestown
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
  • Byron Center
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
  • Carlisle
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Carlisle. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Carlisle
    • Carlisle is located in Kent County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Carlisle
    • From Grandville to Carlisle
  • Kinney
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • 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 Grandville to Kinney
  • Bauer
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Bauer. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bauer
    • Bauer is located in Ottawa County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Bauer
    • From Grandville to Bauer
  • South Blendon
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
  • Zutphen
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Zutphen have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Zutphen
    • Zutphen is located in Ottawa County
  • Forest Grove
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Continue List   (15 more) ...
    • Gitchel
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Gitchel have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gitchel
      • Gitchel is located in Ottawa County
    • North Dorr
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for North Dorr have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Dorr
      • North Dorr is located in Kent County
    • Ross
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Ross have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ross
      • Ross is located in Kent County

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Grandville ...

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 217 newspapers that have been published in the area around Grandville.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Grandville. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Grandville and those printed in the larger area surrounding Grandville.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 24 miles [38.6 km]<6> of Grandville.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we start with 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 Grandville:

The official website for Grandville: www.cityofgrandville.com/

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 Grandville, 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 obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Grandville) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Grandville. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 42.9097, Longitude: -85.7630    









 

Copyright 2025
All Rights Reserved

Thank you for visiting our website.

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