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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 Lac La Belle (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 Lac La Belle. 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 southeast 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 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.

Lac La Belle is located in Keweenaw County.

To see how the shape of Michigan's counties may have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

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

  • Keweenaw County     (The home county of Lac La Belle)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Lac La Belle, with the one closest to Lac La Belle listed first.
    • Mandan
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
      • Mandan is located in Keweenaw County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mandan
    • Bete Grise
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
      • Bete Grise is located in Keweenaw County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bete Grise
    • Wyoming
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Wyoming is located in Keweenaw County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wyoming
    • Copper Harbor
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Eagle Harbor
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Central
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
      • Central is located in Keweenaw County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Central
    • Gay
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Gay is located in Keweenaw County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gay
    • Phoenix
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
      • Phoenix is located in Keweenaw County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Phoenix
    • Snowshoe
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
      • Snowshoe is located in Keweenaw County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Snowshoe
    • Traverse
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
      • Traverse is located in Keweenaw County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Traverse
    • Fulton
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
      • Fulton is located in Keweenaw County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fulton
    • Mohawk
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
  • Houghton County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Lac La Belle, with the one closest to Lac La Belle listed first.
    • Traverse Bay
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Traverse Bay is located in Houghton County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Traverse Bay
    • Copper City
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
      • Copper City is located in Houghton County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Copper City
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 180 people
    • Wolverine
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
      • Wolverine is located in Houghton County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wolverine
    • Kearsarge
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
    • Centennial Heights
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Centennial Heights is located in Houghton County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Centennial Heights
    • Centennial
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Centennial is located in Houghton County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Centennial
    • Calumet
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Lake Linden
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Laurium
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Tamarack
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
      • Tamarack is located in Houghton County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tamarack
    • Lakeview
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
      • Lakeview is located in Houghton County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lakeview
      • Lakeview has also been known as:
      • Lake View
    • Hubbell
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)

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

Cemeteries Near Lac La Belle ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Lac La Belle.

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 Lac La Belle - one of the links might be able to help.

If not found below, our Cemetery List for Lac La Belle covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

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

  • Copper Harbor Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
  • Pine Grove Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
  • Ft. Wilkins Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Evergreen Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
  • Cliff Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
  • Cliff Catholic Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
  • Ahmeek Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ahmeek Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Ahmeek Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located less than 2 miles<3> to the northwest of Ahmeek.
    • The Ahmeek Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Calvary Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #12 <2>
  • Centennial Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Calvary Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Continue List   (6 more) ...
    • Maple Hill Cemetery
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Hecla Cemetery
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Lake View Cemetery
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
    • Waasa Cemetery
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)

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.<4>

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

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

  • Eagle Harbor
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
  • Phoenix
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
    • Phoenix is located in Keweenaw County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Phoenix
  • Eagle River
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
  • Allouez
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
  • Tamarack
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Tamarack is located in Houghton County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tamarack
  • Osceola
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Osceola is located in Houghton County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Osceola
  • Lake Linden
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Swedetown
    (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
    • Swedetown is located in Houghton County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Swedetown
  • Boston
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Boston is located in Houghton County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Boston
  • Dollar Bay
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)

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

Newspapers Published in Lac La Belle ...

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 24 newspapers that have been published in the area around Lac La Belle.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Lac La Belle, there are papers which were published within 22 miles [35.4 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Lac La Belle.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we begin 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 Lac La Belle:

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>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 from Point A (ie- Lac La Belle) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<4>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 Lac La Belle, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.