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 Lax Lake (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 Lax Lake. 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 Lax Lake ...

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 Lax Lake: Lax Lk.

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 northeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors and hospitals were in the next county to the east. 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 east 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.

Lax Lake 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 Lax Lake. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Lax Lake:

• Lake County     (The home county of Lax Lake)
  • The following are listed by their distance from Lax Lake, with the one closest to Lax Lake listed first.
  • Silver Bay
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Silver Bay have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Silver Bay
    • Silver Bay is located in Lake County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,751 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Silver Bay <2>
  • Illgen City
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Illgen City have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Illgen City
    • Illgen City is located in Lake County
  • Finland
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Finland
    • Finland is located in Lake County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Finland <2>
  • Beaver Bay
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Beaver Bay have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Beaver Bay
    • Beaver Bay is located in Lake County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 173 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Beaver Bay <2>
  • Murphy City
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Murphy City have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Murphy City
    • Murphy City is located in Lake County
  • Beaver Crossing
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Beaver Crossing
    • Beaver Crossing is located in Lake County
  • Jordan
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Jordan have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jordan
    • Jordan is located in Lake County
  • Isabella
    (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Isabella
    • Isabella is located in Lake County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Isabella <2>
  • Stewart
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Stewart have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stewart
    • Stewart is located in Lake County
  • Two Harbors
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Two Harbors
    • Two Harbors is located in Lake County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 3,508 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Two Harbors <2>
• Cook County
  • The following are listed by their distance from Lax Lake, with the one closest to Lax Lake listed first.
  • Schroeder
    (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Schroeder have been provided by the GNIS.<1> 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 <2>
  • Tofte
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Tofte have been provided by the GNIS.<1> 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 <2>
• Saint Louis County
  • The following are listed by their distance from Lax Lake, with the one closest to Lax Lake listed first.
  • Brimson
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Brimson have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brimson
    • Brimson is located in Saint Louis County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Brimson <2>
  • Breda
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Breda
    • Breda is located in Saint Louis County

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

Newspapers Published in Lax Lake ...

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 16 newspapers that have been published in the area around Lax Lake.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Lax Lake, there are papers which were published within 27 miles [43.5 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Lax Lake.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we like to 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 Lax Lake:

• 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 Lax Lake ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Lax Lake.

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 Lax Lake covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

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

• Finland Cemetery
  (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Finland Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Finland Cemetery
• Isabella Memorial Cemetery
  (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Isabella Memorial Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Isabella Memorial Cemetery
• Toimi Cemetery
  (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Toimi Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Toimi Cemetery
• Schroeder Cemetery
  (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Schroeder Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Schroeder Cemetery
• Bassett Cemetery
  (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Bassett Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Bassett Cemetery
• Brimson Cemetery
  (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Brimson Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Brimson Cemetery
• Holy Spirit Catholic Cemetery
  (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Holy Spirit Catholic Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Holy Spirit Catholic Cemetery
• Tofte Cemetery
  (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Tofte Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Tofte Cemetery
• Lakeview Cemetery
  (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
  • 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

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

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

• Beaver Bay
  (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Beaver Bay have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Beaver Bay
  • Beaver Bay is located in Lake County
  • Population from the 2020 Census: 173 people
  • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Beaver Bay <2>
• Two Harbors
  (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Two Harbors
  • Two Harbors is located in Lake County
  • Population from the 2020 Census: 3,508 people
  • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Two Harbors <2>

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

Off-the-Road Links ...

Unfortunately, we don't know of a website for Lax Lake. 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/