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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 Petoskey (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 Petoskey. 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 northwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors and hospitals were in the next county to the west. 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 west 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.

Petoskey is located in Emmet County and is the County Seat.

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 Emmet County: Charlevoix & Cheboygan.

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

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

Cemeteries Near Petoskey ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Petoskey.

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Petoskey, with the one closest to Petoskey 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 Petoskey had a population of 2,872 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Petoskey had a population of 5,727 people.

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

  • Bay View
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
  • Kegomic ‑ Historic
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Kegomic. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kegomic
    • Kegomic is located in Emmet County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Kegomic
    • From Petoskey to Kegomic
  • Harbor Springs
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
  • Conway
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Conway have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Conway
    • Conway is located in Emmet County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Conway <1>
  • Clarion
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Clarion have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clarion
    • Clarion is located in Charlevoix County
  • Epsilon
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Epsilon have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Epsilon
    • Epsilon is located in Emmet County
  • Oden
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Horton Bay
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Alanson
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Alanson have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Alanson
    • Alanson is located in Emmet County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 755 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Alanson <1>
  • Ayr
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Ayr have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ayr
    • Ayr is located in Emmet County
  • Pleasant View
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Pleasant View have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pleasant View
    • Pleasant View is located in Emmet County
  • Burgess
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Burgess have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Burgess
    • Burgess is located in Charlevoix County
  • Continue List   (14 more) ...
    • Boyne City
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
    • Wildwood
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Wildwood. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wildwood
      • Wildwood is located in Cheboygan County
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Wildwood
      • From Petoskey to Wildwood
    • Brutus
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Brutus have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brutus
      • Brutus is located in Emmet County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Brutus <1>

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Petoskey ...

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 77 newspapers that have been published in the area around Petoskey.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

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

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 Petoskey:

The official website for Petoskey: www.ci.petoskey.mi.us/

The official website for Emmet County: www.co.emmet.mi.us/

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>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.
<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' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Petoskey) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Petoskey. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 45.3730, Longitude: -84.9556    
<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 Petoskey, 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