RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Minnesota >> Stearns County >> Melrose >> 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 Melrose (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 Melrose. 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 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.

Melrose is located in Stearns 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 Stearns County: Benton, Douglas, Kandiyohi, Meeker, Morrison, Pope, Sherburne, Todd & Wright.

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

  • Stearns County     (The home county of Melrose)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Melrose, with the one closest to Melrose listed first.
    • New Munich
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Meire Grove
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
      • Meire Grove is located in Stearns County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Meire Grove
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 200 people
    • Freeport
      (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
    • Saint Rosa
      (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
      • Saint Rosa is located in Stearns County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Saint Rosa
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 71 people
    • Greenwald
      (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Sauk Centre
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Saint Anthony
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
      • Saint Anthony is located in Stearns County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Saint Anthony
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 91 people
    • Spring Hill
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
      • Spring Hill is located in Stearns County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spring Hill
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 95 people
    • Elrosa
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Albany
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
    • Saint Martin
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Lake Henry
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
      • Lake Henry is located in Stearns County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lake Henry
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 113 people
  • Benton County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Melrose, with the one closest to Melrose listed first.
    • Rice
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
      • Rice is located in Benton County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rice
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,401 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Rice <1>
    • Evergreen Village
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
      • Evergreen Village is located in Benton County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Evergreen Village
    • Watab
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
  • Douglas County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Melrose, with the one closest to Melrose listed first.
    • Osakis
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Nelson
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Nelson is located in Douglas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nelson
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 192 people
    • Forada
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
    • Belle River
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Alexandria
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Carlos
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Kandiyohi County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Melrose, with the one closest to Melrose listed first.
    • Regal
      (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
      • Regal is located in Kandiyohi County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Regal
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 35 people
    • Hawick
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
    • New London
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
    • Sunburg
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Sunburg is located in Kandiyohi County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sunburg
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 99 people
  • Meeker County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Melrose, with the one closest to Melrose listed first.
    • Eden Valley
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Manannah
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
  • Morrison County
  • Pope County
  • Todd County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Melrose, with the one closest to Melrose listed first.
    • Grey Eagle
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
    • Burtrum
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
    • West Union
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
      • West Union is located in Todd County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West Union
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 123 people
    • Pillsbury
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
    • Long Prairie
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
    • Clotho
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Browerville
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
      • Browerville is located in Todd County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Browerville
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 744 people

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

Cemeteries Near Melrose ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Melrose.

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

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Melrose, with the one closest to Melrose 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 Melrose had a population of 780 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Melrose had a population of 3,672 people.

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

  • Meire Grove
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Meire Grove is located in Stearns County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Meire Grove
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 200 people
  • New Munich
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
  • Freeport
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
  • Spaulding
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • Spaulding is located in Todd County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spaulding
  • Sauk Centre
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Spring Hill
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
    • Spring Hill is located in Stearns County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spring Hill
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 95 people
  • Grey Eagle
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
  • Albany
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
  • Saint Martin
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
  • Lake Henry
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
    • Lake Henry is located in Stearns County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lake Henry
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 113 people
  • Little Sauk
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
    • Little Sauk is located in Todd County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Little Sauk
  • Upsala
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Continue List   (16 more) ...
    • Burtrum
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Farming
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Farming is located in Stearns County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Farming
    • West Union
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
      • West Union is located in Todd County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West Union
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 123 people

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Melrose ...

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 103 newspapers that have been published in the area around Melrose.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

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

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 Melrose:

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 Melrose, 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- Melrose) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.