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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 Collis (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 Collis. 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 northwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most 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.

Collis is located in Traverse 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 Traverse County: Big Stone, Grant, Stevens, Wilkin, Richland (ND) & Roberts (SD).

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

  • Traverse County     (The home county of Collis)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Collis, with the one closest to Collis listed first.
    • Dumont
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
      • Dumont is located in Traverse County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dumont
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 87 people
    • Wheaton
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
    • Browns Valley
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
      • Browns Valley is located in Traverse County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Browns Valley
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 522 people
    • Charlesville
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
    • Tintah
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
  • Big Stone County
  • Grant County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Collis, with the one closest to Collis listed first.
    • Herman
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Norcross
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
      • Norcross is located in Grant County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Norcross
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 71 people
  • Stevens County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Collis, with the one closest to Collis listed first.
    • Chokio
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
    • Alberta
      (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
    • Donnelly
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
      • Donnelly is located in Stevens County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Donnelly
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 233 people
    • Morris
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
  • Wilkin County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Collis, with the one closest to Collis listed first.
    • Nashua
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
      • Nashua is located in Wilkin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nashua
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 66 people
    • Tenney
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
      • Tenney is located in Wilkin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tenney
      • Estimated population in 2011: 5 people
    • Childs
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
  • Richland County (ND)
  • Grant County (SD)
  • Roberts County (SD)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Collis, with the one closest to Collis listed first.
    • Shady Beach
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
    • White Rock
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
      • White Rock is located in Roberts County (SD)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for White Rock
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 3 people
    • Hartford Beach
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
      • Hartford Beach is located in Roberts County (SD)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hartford Beach
      • Estimated population in 2014: 126 people
    • South Dakota Park
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
      • South Dakota Park is located in Roberts County (SD)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Dakota Park
      • Estimated population in 2014: 15 people
    • Rosholt
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Rosholt is located in Roberts County (SD)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rosholt
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 424 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Rosholt <1>
    • Wilmot
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Peever Flats
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
    • Peever
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
    • New Effington
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Corona
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
      • Corona is located in Roberts County (SD)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Corona
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 107 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Corona <1>
    • Sisseton
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)

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

Cemeteries Near Collis ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Collis.

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

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Collis, with the one closest to Collis 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.<2>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that in 1895, Collis had a post office and no railroad service.

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

  • Dumont
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Dumont is located in Traverse County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dumont
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 87 people
  • Graceville
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
  • Barry
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Johnson
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
  • Wheaton
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
  • Clinton
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
  • Chokio
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
  • Beardsley
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
  • Herman
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
  • Norcross
    (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
    • Norcross is located in Grant County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Norcross
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 71 people
  • Browns Valley
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
    • Browns Valley is located in Traverse County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Browns Valley
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 522 people
  • White Rock
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
    • White Rock is located in Roberts County (SD)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for White Rock
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 3 people
  • Continue List   (13 more) ...
    • Donnelly
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
      • Donnelly is located in Stevens County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Donnelly
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 233 people
    • Ortonville
      (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
    • Big Stone City
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)

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

Newspapers Published in Collis ...

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 71 newspapers that have been published in the area around Collis.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Collis, 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 Collis.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we begin 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 Collis:

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>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 Collis, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<3>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Collis) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.