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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 Hendrum (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 Hendrum. 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 southwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors and hospitals 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.

Hendrum is located in Norman 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 Norman County: Becker, Clay, Mahnomen, Polk, Cass (ND) & Traill (ND).

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

  • Norman County     (The home county of Hendrum)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Hendrum, with the one closest to Hendrum listed first.
    • Halstad
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Perley
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
    • Shelly
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
      • Shelly is located in Norman County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shelly
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 178 people
    • Ada
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
      • Ada is located in Norman County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ada
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,556 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Ada <1>
    • Borup
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
      • Borup is located in Norman County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Borup
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 103 people
    • Twin Valley
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
      • Twin Valley is located in Norman County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Twin Valley
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 750 people
    • Gary
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
    • Flaming
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Clay County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Hendrum, with the one closest to Hendrum listed first.
    • Georgetown
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
      • Georgetown is located in Clay County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Georgetown
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 126 people
    • Kragnes
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
    • Felton
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Oakport
      (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
      • Oakport is located in Clay County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oakport
    • Dilworth
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
    • Moorhead
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
    • Glyndon
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Ulen
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Finkle
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
  • Polk County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Hendrum, with the one closest to Hendrum listed first.
    • Nielsville
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
      • Nielsville is located in Polk County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nielsville
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 82 people
    • Climax
      (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
      • Climax is located in Polk County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Climax
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 261 people
    • Beltrami
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
      • Beltrami is located in Polk County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Beltrami
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 99 people
  • Cass County (ND)
  • Traill County (ND)

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

Cemeteries Near Hendrum ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Hendrum.

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

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Hendrum, with the one closest to Hendrum 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.<3>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that in 1895, Hendrum had a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Hendrum had a population of 282 people.

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

  • Perley
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
  • Halstad
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
  • Grandin
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
  • Kelso
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
  • Georgetown
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
    • Georgetown is located in Clay County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Georgetown
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 126 people
  • Alton
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Caledonia
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
  • Ada
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
    • Ada is located in Norman County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ada
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,556 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Ada <1>
  • Argusville
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
  • Hillsboro
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
  • Lockhart
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Lockhart is located in Norman County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lockhart
  • Nielsville
    (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
    • Nielsville is located in Polk County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nielsville
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 82 people
  • Continue List   (14 more) ...

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Hendrum ...

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 101 newspapers that have been published in the area around Hendrum.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Hendrum. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Hendrum and those printed in the larger area surrounding Hendrum.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<4> of Hendrum.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first turn to the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These websites either 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 Hendrum:

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>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 Hendrum, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<4>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Hendrum) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.