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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 Ortonville (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 Ortonville. 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.

Ortonville is located in Oakland 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 Oakland County: Genesee, Lapeer, Livingston, Macomb, Washtenaw & Wayne.

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

  • Oakland County     (The home county of Ortonville)
  • Genesee County
  • Lapeer County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Ortonville, with the one closest to Ortonville listed first.
    • Hadley
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Hadley have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hadley
      • Hadley is located in Lapeer County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Hadley <2>
    • Metamora
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Hunters Creek
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Lapeer
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Lapeer have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lapeer
      • Lapeer is located in Lapeer County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 8,452 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Lapeer <2>
    • Dryden
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
    • Attica
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Attica have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Attica
      • Attica is located in Lapeer County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Attica <2>
    • Almont
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Almont have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Almont
      • Almont is located in Lapeer County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,815 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Almont <2>
    • Columbiaville
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
    • Imlay City
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Lum
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Barnes Lake - Millers Lake
      (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
    • Kings Mill
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
  • Livingston County
  • Macomb County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Ortonville, with the one closest to Ortonville listed first.
    • Miami ‑ Historic
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Miami. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<1>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Miami
      • Miami is located in Macomb County
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Miami
      • From Ortonville to Miami
    • Grays' Mills ‑ Historic
      (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Grays' Mills. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<1>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grays' Mills
      • Grays' Mills is located in Macomb County
      • Former names for Grays' Mills:
      • Clifton Mill
      • Clifton Village
      • Clifton
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Grays' Mills
      • From Ortonville to Grays' Mills
    • Mount Vernon ‑ Historic
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
    • Crissmanville ‑ Historic
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
    • Thorington ‑ Historic
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Thorington. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<1>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Thorington
      • Thorington is located in Macomb County
      • Thorington has also been known as:
      • Thorington Settlement
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Thorington
      • From Ortonville to Thorington
    • Shelby ‑ Historic
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Shelby. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<1>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shelby
      • Shelby is located in Macomb County
      • Shelby has also been known as:
      • Shelby Crossing
      • Shelby Station
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Shelby
      • From Ortonville to Shelby
    • Romeo
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
    • Depew ‑ Historic
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Depew. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<1>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Depew
      • Depew is located in Macomb County
      • Depew has also been known as:
      • Depew Siding
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Depew
      • From Ortonville to Depew
    • Washington
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Disco ‑ Historic
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
    • Shelby Village ‑ Historic
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
    • Armada Corners ‑ Historic
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Armada Corners. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<1>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Armada Corners
      • Armada Corners is located in Macomb County
      • Armada Corners has also been known as:
      • Selleck's Corners
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Armada Corners
      • From Ortonville to Armada Corners
  • Saint Clair County
  • Shiawassee County
  • Tuscola County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Ortonville, with the one closest to Ortonville listed first.
    • Fostoria
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Fostoria have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fostoria
      • Fostoria is located in Tuscola County
    • Millington
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)

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

Cemeteries Near Ortonville ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Ortonville.

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Ortonville, with the one closest to Ortonville 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.<5>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Ortonville had a population of 313 people in 1895 with a post office and no railroad service. In 2020, Ortonville had a population of 1,430 people.

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

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Ortonville ...

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 106 newspapers that have been published in the area around Ortonville.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Ortonville. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Ortonville and those printed in the larger area surrounding Ortonville.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 26 miles [41.8 km]<6> of Ortonville.

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 Ortonville:

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

The official website for Oakland County: www.co.oakland.mi.us/

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>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 Ortonville, 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 from Point A (ie- Ortonville) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Ortonville. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 42.8523, Longitude: -83.4448    









 

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This page was last modified/updated: 28 Apr 2025