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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 Boy River (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 Boy River. 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 Boy River ...

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.

For example, a typical abbreviation for Boy River: Boy Riv.

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 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.

Boy River is located in Cass County.

To see how the shape of Minnesota's counties may have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Cass County: Aitkin, Beltrami, Crow Wing, Hubbard, Itasca, Morrison, Todd & Wadena.

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

  • Cass County     (The home county of Boy River)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Boy River, with the one closest to Boy River listed first.
    • Federal Dam
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • North Central Cass
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
      • North Central Cass is located in Cass County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Central Cass
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 29 people
    • Bena
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
    • Remer
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Longville
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
    • Whipholt
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
      • Whipholt is located in Cass County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Whipholt
    • Ryan Village
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
      • Ryan Village is located in Cass County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ryan Village
    • Wabedo
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
      • Wabedo is located in Cass County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wabedo
    • Ah-gwah-ching
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
      • Ah-gwah-ching is located in Cass County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ah-gwah-ching
    • Walker
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
    • Hackensack
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Outing
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
    • Cass Lake
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Aitkin County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Boy River, with the one closest to Boy River listed first.
    • Hill City
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Swatara
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Swatara is located in Aitkin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Swatara
    • Haypoint
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Haypoint is located in Aitkin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Haypoint
  • Beltrami County
  • Crow Wing County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Boy River, with the one closest to Boy River listed first.
    • Fifty Lakes
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
    • Emily
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
      • Emily is located in Crow Wing County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Emily
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 841 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Emily <1>
    • Manhattan Beach
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
  • Hubbard County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Boy River, with the one closest to Boy River listed first.
    • Benedict
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
      • Benedict is located in Hubbard County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Benedict
    • Laporte
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
    • Akeley
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
  • Itasca County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Boy River, with the one closest to Boy River listed first.
    • Deer River
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Zemple
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
      • Zemple is located in Itasca County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Zemple
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 90 people
    • Cohasset
      (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
    • Grand Rapids
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
    • La Prairie
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
      • La Prairie is located in Itasca County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for La Prairie
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 661 people
    • Max
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
    • Bowstring
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
      • Bowstring is located in Itasca County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bowstring

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

Cemeteries Near Boy River ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Boy River.

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 Boy River - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • Arlington Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
  • Island Zion Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Gilfillan Church Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
  • Fairview Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
  • White Cloud Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
  • St. Edwards Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
  • Fairview Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fairview Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Fairview Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located outside and to the northwest of Remer.
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #1961404 <2>
  • Salem Evangelical Lutheran Church Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
  • Riverside Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
  • Mary Donald Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
  • Rabbits Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
  • St. Joseph Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Continue List   (43 more) ...
    • Tibbets Cemetery
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Hope Cemetery
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Paulley Children Cemetery
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)

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.<4>

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

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

  • Deer River
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
  • Cohasset
    (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
  • Hackensack
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
  • Grand Rapids
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)

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

Newspapers Published in Boy River ...

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 48 newspapers that have been published in the area around Boy River.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Boy River, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Boy River.

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 professional and volunteer 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 Boy River:

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>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- Boy River) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<4>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 Boy River, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.