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 Forest Center (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 Forest Center. 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 Forest Center ...

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 Forest Center: Forest Ctr. (or less commonly used: Forest Cen., Forest Cent. or Forest Cntr.)

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 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.

Forest Center is located in Lake County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Lake County: Cook, Saint Louis, Ashland (WI), Bayfield (WI) & Douglas (WI).

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

• Lake County     (The home county of Forest Center)
  • The following are listed by their distance from Forest Center, with the one closest to Forest Center listed first.
  • Isabella
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Isabella
    • Isabella is located in Lake County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Isabella <1>
  • Murphy City
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Murphy City have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Murphy City
    • Murphy City is located in Lake County
  • Finland
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Finland
    • Finland is located in Lake County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Finland <1>
• Cook County
  • The following are listed by their distance from Forest Center, with the one closest to Forest Center listed first.
  • Schroeder
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Schroeder have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Schroeder
    • Schroeder is located in Cook County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Schroeder <1>
  • Tofte
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Tofte have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tofte
    • Tofte is located in Cook County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Tofte <1>
• Saint Louis County
  • The following are listed by their distance from Forest Center, with the one closest to Forest Center listed first.
  • Winton
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Winton have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Winton
    • Winton is located in Saint Louis County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 164 people
  • Ely
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Ely have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ely
    • Ely is located in Saint Louis County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 3,325 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Ely <1>

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

Newspapers Published in Forest Center ...

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 7 newspapers that have been published in the area around Forest Center.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Forest Center, there are papers which were published within 26 miles [41.8 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Forest Center.

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 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 Forest Center:

• Websites specific to Minnesota
  • Jump to Cyndi's List
  • Jump to Family Search
  • Jump to Genealogy Trails
  • Website for the Minnesota State Archives

• Pages specific to Lake County
  • Jump to Cyndi's List
  • Jump to Family Search
  • Jump to Genealogy Trails

• Genealogy information for nearby counties
  • Cook County
    • Jump to Cyndi's List
    • Jump to Family Search
    • Jump to Genealogy Trails
  • Saint Louis County
    • Jump to Cyndi's List
    • Jump to Family Search
    • Jump to Genealogy Trails

• Cemetery Information and Directories for Minnesota
  • Cemetery Junction: Cemeteries of Minnesota
  • Cyndi's List
  • Cemeteries of Minnesota
  • Cemeteries of Lake County
  • FamilySearch.org: Cemeteries of Minnesota
  • Find-A-Grave: Home Page
  • Interment.net
  • Cemeteries of Minnesota

Cemeteries Near Forest Center ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Forest Center.

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

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

• Isabella Memorial Cemetery
  (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Isabella Memorial Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Isabella Memorial Cemetery
• Schroeder Cemetery
  (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Schroeder Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Schroeder Cemetery
• Ely Cemetery
  (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Ely Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Ely Cemetery
• Birch Lake Cemetery
  (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Birch Lake Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Birch Lake Cemetery
• Tofte Cemetery
  (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Tofte Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Tofte Cemetery
• Finland Cemetery
  (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Finland Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Finland Cemetery
• Lutsen Cemetery
  (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Lutsen Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Lutsen Cemetery

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 Forest Center in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Forest Center.

• Ely
  (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Ely have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ely
  • Ely is located in Saint Louis County
  • Population from the 2020 Census: 3,325 people
  • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Ely <1>

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

Off-the-Road Links ...

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

The official website for Lake County: www.lakecnty.com/

The official website for State of Minnesota: https://mn.gov/