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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 Grand Rapids (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 Grand Rapids. 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 Grand Rapids ...

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 Grand Rapids: Grand Rpds.

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 southwest 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 south.

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 south 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.

Grand Rapids is located in Itasca County and is the County Seat.

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 Itasca County: Aitkin, Beltrami, Cass, Koochiching & Saint Louis.

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

  • Itasca County     (The home county of Grand Rapids)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Grand Rapids, with the one closest to Grand Rapids listed first.
    • La Prairie
      (Less than 2 miles to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for La Prairie have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for La Prairie
      • La Prairie is located in Itasca County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 661 people
    • Cohasset
      (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Cohasset have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cohasset
      • Cohasset is located in Itasca County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,739 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Cohasset <2>
    • Coleraine
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Coleraine have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Coleraine
      • Coleraine is located in Itasca County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,972 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Coleraine <2>
    • Bovey
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Bovey have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bovey
      • Bovey is located in Itasca County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 784 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Bovey <2>
    • Taconite
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Taconite have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Taconite
      • Taconite is located in Itasca County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 629 people
    • Marble
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Marble have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Marble
      • Marble is located in Itasca County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 674 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Marble <2>
    • Calumet
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Calumet have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Calumet
      • Calumet is located in Itasca County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 351 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Calumet <2>
    • Zemple
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Zemple have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Zemple
      • Zemple is located in Itasca County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 90 people
    • Deer River
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Deer River have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Deer River
      • Deer River is located in Itasca County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 930 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Deer River <2>
    • Warba
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Warba have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Warba
      • Warba is located in Itasca County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 186 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Warba <2>
    • Pengilly
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Pengilly have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pengilly
      • Pengilly is located in Itasca County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Pengilly <2>
    • Swan River
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Swan River have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Swan River
      • Swan River is located in Itasca County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Swan River <2>
  • Aitkin County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Grand Rapids, with the one closest to Grand Rapids listed first.
    • Hill City
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Hill City have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hill City
      • Hill City is located in Aitkin County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 580 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Hill City <2>
    • Jacobson
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Haypoint
      (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Haypoint
      • Haypoint is located in Aitkin County
    • Swatara
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Swatara have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Swatara
      • Swatara is located in Aitkin County
  • Cass County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Grand Rapids, with the one closest to Grand Rapids listed first.
    • Remer
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Boy River
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Boy River have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Boy River
      • Boy River is located in Cass County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 51 people
  • Saint Louis County
    • Hibbing
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hibbing
      • Hibbing is located in Saint Louis County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 15,716 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Hibbing <2>

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Grand Rapids ...

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 44 newspapers that have been published in the area around Grand Rapids.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Grand Rapids. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Grand Rapids and those printed in the larger area surrounding Grand Rapids.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<3> of Grand Rapids.

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 Grand Rapids:

Cemeteries Near Grand Rapids ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Grand Rapids.

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 Grand Rapids covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

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

  • Blandin Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Blandin Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Blandin Cemetery
  • Calvary Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Calvary Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Calvary Cemetery
  • Itasca Calvary Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
  • Old Soldiers Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Old Soldiers Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Old Soldiers Cemetery
  • Harris Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Harris Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Harris Cemetery
  • Lakeview Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Lakeview Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Lakeview Cemetery
  • Wildwood Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Wildwood Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Wildwood Cemetery
  • Blackberry Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Blackberry Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Blackberry Cemetery
  • Trout Lake Norwegian Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Trout Lake Norwegian Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Trout Lake Norwegian Cemetery
  • Trout Lake Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Trout Lake Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Trout Lake Cemetery
  • Paulley Children Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Paulley Children Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Paulley Children Cemetery
  • Heavirland Family Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Heavirland Family Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Heavirland Family Cemetery
  • Continue List   (36 more) ...
    • Richard R Shadley Memorial Cemetery
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Richard R Shadley Memorial Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Richard R Shadley Memorial Cemetery
    • New Wabana Cemetery
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the New Wabana Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the New Wabana Cemetery
    • Feeley Cemetery
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Feeley Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Feeley 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.<5>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that in 1895, Grand Rapids had a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Grand Rapids had a population of 11,219 people.

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

  • La Prairie
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for La Prairie have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for La Prairie
    • La Prairie is located in Itasca County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 661 people
  • Cohasset
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Cohasset have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cohasset
    • Cohasset is located in Itasca County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,739 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Cohasset <2>
  • Blackberry
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Blackberry have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Blackberry
    • Blackberry is located in Itasca County
  • Deer River
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Deer River have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Deer River
    • Deer River is located in Itasca County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 930 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Deer River <2>
  • Swan River
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Swan River have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Swan River
    • Swan River is located in Itasca County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Swan River <2>
  • Wawina
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Wawina have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wawina
    • Wawina is located in Itasca County
  • Island
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Island have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Island
    • Island is located in Saint Louis County

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

The official website for Grand Rapids: www.grandrapidsmn.org/

The official website for Itasca County: www.co.itasca.mn.us/

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

Footnotes ...

<1>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.
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<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 drawn from Point A (ie- Grand Rapids) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Grand Rapids. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 47.2359, Longitude: -93.5284    
<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 Grand Rapids, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024