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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 Star (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 Star. 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.

Star is located in Alger 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 Alger County: Delta, Luce, Marquette & Schoolcraft.

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

  • Alger County     (The home county of Star)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Star, with the one closest to Star listed first.
    • Shingleton
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
    • Doty
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
      • Doty is located in Alger County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Doty
    • Melstrand
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
      • Melstrand is located in Alger County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Melstrand
    • Indian Town
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Indian Town is located in Alger County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Indian Town
    • Juniper
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
      • Juniper is located in Alger County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Juniper
    • Wetmore
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
    • Munising
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
    • Munising Junction
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
      • Munising Junction is located in Alger County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Munising Junction
    • Au Train
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
    • Slapneck ‑ Historic
      (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
      • Slapneck is located in Alger County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Slapneck
    • Chatham
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
    • Eben Junction
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
    • Traunik
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
      • Traunik is located in Alger County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Traunik
      • Former names for Traunik:
      • Buckeye Landing
      • Buckeye Spur
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Traunik <1>
  • Luce County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Star, with the one closest to Star listed first.
    • Danaher
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
      • Danaher is located in Luce County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Danaher
    • Carpenter Landing
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
      • Carpenter Landing is located in Luce County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Carpenter Landing
    • Laketon
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
      • Laketon is located in Luce County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Laketon
  • Schoolcraft County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Star, with the one closest to Star listed first.
    • Creighton
      (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
      • Creighton is located in Schoolcraft County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Creighton
    • Walsh
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
      • Walsh is located in Schoolcraft County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Walsh
    • Steuben
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
      • Steuben is located in Schoolcraft County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Steuben
    • Seney
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
    • Germfask
      (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
    • Copenhagen Beach
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
      • Copenhagen Beach is located in Schoolcraft County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Copenhagen Beach
    • Elkhorn
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
      • Elkhorn is located in Schoolcraft County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elkhorn
    • Manistique
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
    • Minor Beach
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
      • Minor Beach is located in Schoolcraft County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Minor Beach
    • Cooks
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
    • Gulliver
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)

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

Cemeteries Near Star ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Star.

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

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

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

  • Munising Twp. Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
  • Reilly's Graves
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
  • Maple Grove Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
  • Grand Island Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
  • Indian Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
  • Byers Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
  • Hiawatha Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
  • Boot Hill Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
  • Au Train Twp. Cemetery
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
  • Germfask Cemetery
    (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
  • Pine Grove Cemetery
    (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
  • Woods Cemetery
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
  • Continue List   (14 more) ...

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.<3>

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

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

  • Shingleton
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
  • Creighton
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
    • Creighton is located in Schoolcraft County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Creighton
  • Munising
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
  • Seney
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
  • Au Train
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
  • Germfask
    (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
  • Rock River
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
    • Rock River is located in Alger County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rock River
  • Manistique
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
  • Cooks
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
  • Grand Marais
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Onota
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
    • Onota is located in Alger County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Onota

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

Newspapers Published in Star ...

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 32 newspapers that have been published in the area around Star.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Star, there are papers which were published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Star.

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 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 Star:

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>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 Star, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<4>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a '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- Star) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.