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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 Van (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 Van. 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 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.

Van is located in Emmet 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 Emmet County: Charlevoix & Cheboygan.

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

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

Cemeteries Near Van ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Van.

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

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

  • McKinley Twp. Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the McKinley Twp. Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the McKinley Twp. Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Greenwood Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Greenwood Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Greenwood Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Levering & Carp Lake Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Levering & Carp Lake Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Levering & Carp Lake Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Ayr Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Mennonite Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Mennonite Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Mennonite Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Maple River Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Maple River Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Maple River Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Munro Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Munro Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Munro Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Hebron Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Hebron Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Hebron Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Bliss Twp. Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Bliss Twp. Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Bliss Twp. Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • St. Nicholas Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
  • Emmet County Poor Farm Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Emmet County Poor Farm Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Emmet County Poor Farm Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Continue List   (88 more) ...
    • St. Mary's Indian Cemetery
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Mary's Indian Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Mary's Indian Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Riggsville Cemetery
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Riggsville Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Riggsville Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Pleasant View Cemetery
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Pleasant View Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Pleasant View Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.

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>

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

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

  • Pellston
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
  • Levering
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
  • Brutus
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Brutus have been provided by the GNIS.<2> 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>
  • Ayr
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Ayr have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ayr
    • Ayr is located in Emmet County
  • Carp Lake
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
  • Bliss
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Bliss. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bliss
    • Bliss is located in Emmet County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Bliss
    • From Van to Bliss
  • Pleasant View
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Pleasant View have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pleasant View
    • Pleasant View is located in Emmet County
  • Riggsville
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
  • Alanson
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Alanson have been provided by the GNIS.<2> 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>
  • Oden
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
  • Burt Lake
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Burt Lake have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Burt Lake
    • Burt Lake is located in Cheboygan County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Burt Lake <1>
  • Topinabee
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Continue List   (13 more) ...
    • Freedom
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Freedom have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Freedom
      • Freedom is located in Cheboygan County
    • Conway
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Conway have been provided by the GNIS.<2> 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>
    • Mullett Lake
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Mullett Lake have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mullett Lake
      • Mullett Lake is located in Cheboygan County

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

Newspapers Published in Van ...

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 62 newspapers that have been published in the area around Van.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Van, there are papers which were published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<6>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Van.

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 Van:

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

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>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.
<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>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 Van, 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 things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Van) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Van. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 45.5942, Longitude: -84.7828    









 

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This page was last modified/updated: 28 Apr 2025