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The Commemorative Quarter for Michigan





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 Traverse Bay (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 Traverse Bay. 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 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.

Traverse Bay is located in Houghton 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 Houghton County: Baraga, Iron, Keweenaw, Ontonagon & Ashland (WI).

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

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

Cemeteries Near Traverse Bay ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Traverse Bay.

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Traverse Bay, with the one closest to Traverse Bay 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>

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

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

  • Lake Linden
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Lake Linden have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lake Linden
    • Lake Linden is located in Houghton County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 933 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Lake Linden <2>
  • Allouez
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Allouez have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Allouez
    • Allouez is located in Keweenaw County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Allouez <2>
  • Osceola
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Osceola have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Osceola
    • Osceola is located in Houghton County
  • Tamarack
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Tamarack. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tamarack
    • Tamarack is located in Houghton County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Tamarack
    • From Traverse Bay to Tamarack
  • Swedetown
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Swedetown have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Swedetown
    • Swedetown is located in Houghton County
  • Dollar Bay
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Phoenix
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
  • Boston
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Boston. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Boston
    • Boston is located in Houghton County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Boston
    • From Traverse Bay to Boston
  • Ripley
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Ripley have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ripley
    • Ripley is located in Houghton County
  • Eagle River
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Eagle River have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eagle River
    • Eagle River is located in Keweenaw County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Eagle River <2>
  • Houghton
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
  • Hancock
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
  • Continue List   (6 more) ...
    • Chassell
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Chassell have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chassell
      • Chassell is located in Houghton County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Chassell <2>
    • Eagle Harbor
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
    • Atlantic Mine
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Atlantic Mine have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Atlantic Mine
      • Atlantic Mine is located in Houghton County

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

Newspapers Published in Traverse Bay ...

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 50 newspapers that have been published in the area around Traverse Bay.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Traverse Bay, there are papers which were published within 24 miles [38.6 km]<5>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Traverse Bay.

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 Traverse Bay:

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

The official website for State of Michigan: https://www.michigan.gov/

Footnotes ...

<1>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.
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<3>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.
<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 '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- Traverse Bay) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Traverse Bay. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 47.1948, Longitude: -88.2340    
<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 Traverse Bay, 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