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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 Zenith Heights (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 Zenith Heights. 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.

Name Variations for Zenith Heights ...

When searching records, keep in mind that names and their spelling can change over time. Our sources include documents like maps, railroad schedules, Travel, Express and Shipping Guides. Many of these documents date from the 1800's and it's common to find spelling differences.

Although we can't give a definitive list, hopefully the following will give you a feel for the variations that might have occurred.

For example, a typical abbreviation for Zenith Heights: Zenith Hts. (in Canada, 'Hgts.' is the more common abbreviation.)

If you have information about these names (such as the reason for the change, date of change, the origin of the name), please Contact Us.

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 hospitals and doctors 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.

Zenith Heights is located in Charlevoix 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 Charlevoix County: Antrim, Emmet & Otsego.

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

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

Cemeteries Near Zenith Heights ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Zenith Heights.

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

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

  • Dyer Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Dyer Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Dyer Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • North Bay Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the North Bay Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the North Bay Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Horton Bay Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Horton Bay Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Horton Bay Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Undine Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Undine Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Undine Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Evangeline Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Evangeline Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Evangeline Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Indian Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Indian Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Indian Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Advance Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Advance Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Advance Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Duncan Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Duncan Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Duncan Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Dunkard Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Dunkard Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Dunkard Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Maple Hill Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
  • Greenwood Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
  • St. Francis Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
  • Continue List   (108 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.<5>

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

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

  • Horton Bay
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Advance
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Advance have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Advance
    • Advance is located in Charlevoix County
  • Clarion
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
    • 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
  • Boyne City
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
  • Petoskey
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Burgess
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • 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
  • Bay View
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Ironton
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Kegomic ‑ Historic
    (8 miles [12.9 km] 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 Zenith Heights to Kegomic
  • Harbor Springs
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
  • Boyne Falls
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Charlevoix
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
  • Continue List   (13 more) ...
    • East Jordan
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for East Jordan have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for East Jordan
      • East Jordan is located in Charlevoix County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,339 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for East Jordan <1>
    • Conway
      (11 miles [17.7 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>
    • Epsilon
      (12 miles [19.3 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

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

Newspapers Published in Zenith Heights ...

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 74 newspapers that have been published in the area around Zenith Heights.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Zenith Heights, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<6>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Zenith Heights.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first turn to 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 Zenith Heights:

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

The official website for Charlevoix County: www.charlevoixcounty.org/

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>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 Zenith Heights, 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 from Point A (ie- Zenith Heights) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Zenith Heights. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 45.3030, Longitude: -85.0360    









 

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This page was last modified/updated: 28 Apr 2025