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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 Lexington (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 Lexington. 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 and doctors 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.

Lexington is located in Sanilac 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 Sanilac County: Huron, Lapeer, Saint Clair & Tuscola.

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

  • Sanilac County     (The home county of Lexington)
  • Huron County
  • Lapeer County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Lexington, with the one closest to Lexington listed first.
    • Brown City
      (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
    • Burnside
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Burnside. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<1>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Burnside
      • Burnside is located in Lapeer County
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Burnside
      • From Lexington to Burnside
  • Macomb County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Lexington, with the one closest to Lexington listed first.
    • Memphis
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Memphis have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Memphis
      • Memphis is located in Macomb County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,170 people
      • Former name for Memphis:
      • Well's Settlement
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Memphis <2>
    • Doyle ‑ Historic
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Doyle. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<1>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Doyle
      • Doyle is located in Macomb County
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Doyle
      • From Lexington to Doyle
  • Saint Clair County

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

Cemeteries Near Lexington ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Lexington.

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Lexington, with the one closest to Lexington 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 Lexington had a population of 712 people in 1895 with a post office and no railroad service. In 2020, Lexington had a population of 1,118 people.

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

  • Croswell
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
  • Amadore ‑ Historic
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
  • Jeddo
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Jeddo have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jeddo
    • Jeddo is located in Saint Clair County
  • Applegate
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
  • Blaine
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
  • Lakeport
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
  • Roseburg
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Roseburg. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<1>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Roseburg
    • Roseburg is located in Sanilac County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Roseburg
    • From Lexington to Roseburg
  • Port Sanilac
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Port Sanilac have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Port Sanilac
    • Port Sanilac is located in Sanilac County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 574 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Port Sanilac <2>
  • Fargo
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Fargo have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fargo
    • Fargo is located in Saint Clair County
  • Carsonville
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
  • Cash
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Cash. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<1>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cash
    • Cash is located in Sanilac County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Cash
    • From Lexington to Cash
  • Speaker
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
  • Continue List   (14 more) ...

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Lexington ...

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 55 newspapers that have been published in the area around Lexington.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Lexington. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Lexington and those printed in the larger area surrounding Lexington.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<5> of Lexington.

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 helpful 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 Lexington:

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

The official website for Sanilac County: www.sanilaccounty.net/

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>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- Lexington) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Lexington. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 43.2684, Longitude: -82.5310    
<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 Lexington, 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.

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This page was last modified/updated: 28 Apr 2025