RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Minnesota >> Hennepin County >> Corcoran >> Genealogy HelperIndex...

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 Corcoran (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 Corcoran. 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 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.

Corcoran is located in Hennepin 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 Hennepin County: Anoka, Carver, Dakota, Ramsey, Scott, Sherburne & Wright.

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

  • Hennepin County     (The home county of Corcoran)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Corcoran, with the one closest to Corcoran listed first.
    • Hamel
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • Maple Grove
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Medina
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • Loretto
      (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Rogers
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
      • Rogers is located in Hennepin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rogers
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 13,623 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Rogers <1>
    • Plymouth
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Greenfield
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
      • Greenfield is located in Hennepin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Greenfield
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 3,058 people
    • Osseo
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
      • Osseo is located in Hennepin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Osseo
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,703 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Osseo <1>
    • Dayton
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Long Lake
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Medicine Lake
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Maple Plain
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Anoka County
  • Carver County
  • Dakota County
  • Isanti County
  • McLeod County
  • Ramsey County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Corcoran, with the one closest to Corcoran listed first.
    • Mounds View
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
    • New Brighton
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
    • Arden Hills
      (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
    • Lauderdale
      (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
      • Lauderdale is located in Ramsey County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lauderdale
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,484 people
    • Falcon Heights
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
    • Roseville
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
    • Shoreview
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
    • Cardigan Junction
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
      • Cardigan Junction is located in Ramsey County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cardigan Junction
    • Little Canada
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
    • North Oaks
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
    • Vadnais Heights
      (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
    • Gem Lake
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
      • Gem Lake is located in Ramsey County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gem Lake
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 536 people
  • Scott County
  • Sherburne County
  • Washington County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Corcoran, with the one closest to Corcoran listed first.
    • Birchwood Village
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
      • Birchwood Village is located in Washington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Birchwood Village
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 880 people
    • Hugo
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
    • Dellwood
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
      • Dellwood is located in Washington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dellwood
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,120 people
    • Mahtomedi
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
    • Willernie
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
    • Landfall
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
      • Landfall is located in Washington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Landfall
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 733 people
    • Oakdale
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
      • Oakdale is located in Washington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oakdale
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 27,773 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Oakdale <1>
    • Pine Springs
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
      • Pine Springs is located in Washington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pine Springs
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 390 people
    • Forest Lake
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
    • Newport
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Wright County

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

Cemeteries Near Corcoran ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Corcoran.

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

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

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

  • St. Patrick Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
  • St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
  • Old St. Thomas Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
  • St. Thomas Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
  • St. Janes Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
  • St. Anne's Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
  • Weaver Lake Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
  • Immanuel Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
  • Maple Knoll Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
  • Old St. Walburga Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
  • St.s Peter & Paul Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
  • Holy Name Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
  • Continue List   (299 more) ...
    • Maple Grove Cemetery
      (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Fletcher Cemetery
      (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Greenwood Cemetery
      (5 miles [8 km] to the west)

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, Corcoran had a post office and no railroad service. In 2020, Corcoran had a population of 6,607 people.

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

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

Newspapers Published in Corcoran ...

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 293 newspapers that have been published in the area around Corcoran.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Corcoran, there are papers which were published within 24 miles [38.6 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Corcoran.

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 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 Corcoran:

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 Corcoran, 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 from Point A (ie- Corcoran) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.