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A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
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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 Osseo (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 Osseo. 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 and doctors 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.

Osseo is located in Hillsdale County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Hillsdale County: Steuben (IN), Branch, Calhoun, Jackson, Lenawee, Fulton (OH) & Williams (OH).

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

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

Cemeteries Near Osseo ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Osseo.

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 Osseo - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • East Hill Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
  • Lake Lesage Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
  • Leonard Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
  • Maple Grove Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
  • Hill Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
  • Mt. Pleasant Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
  • Morgan Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Black Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
  • Greenwood Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
  • Leonardson Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
  • Dow Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Holcomb Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
  • Continue List   (385 more) ...
    • Lake View Cemetery
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • St. Anthony Cemetery
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Old Sebring Cemetery
      (5 miles [8 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.<2>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Osseo had a population of 200 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service.

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

  • Pittsford
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
  • North Adams
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • North Adams is located in Hillsdale County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Adams
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 461 people
  • Hillsdale
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
  • Cambria
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Cambria is located in Hillsdale County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cambria
  • Frontier
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Frontier is located in Hillsdale County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Frontier
  • Ransom
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
  • Bankers
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Bankers is located in Hillsdale County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bankers
  • Jonesville
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
  • Betzer
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
    • Betzer is located in Hillsdale County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Betzer
  • Wheatland
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Wheatland is located in Hillsdale County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wheatland
  • Reading
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
  • Hudson
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
  • Continue List   (14 more) ...
    • Jerome
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
    • Rollin
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
      • Rollin is located in Lenawee County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rollin
    • Moscow
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)

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

Newspapers Published in Osseo ...

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 46 newspapers that have been published in the area around Osseo.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Osseo, there are papers which were published within 26 miles [41.8 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Osseo.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we like to start with 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 Osseo:

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>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 Osseo, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<3>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- Osseo) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.