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

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

  • Stearns County     (The home county of Richmond)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Richmond, with the one closest to Richmond listed first.
    • Cold Spring
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Roscoe
      (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Saint Martin
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Rockville
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
    • Pleasant Lake
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
      • Pleasant Lake is located in Stearns County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pleasant Lake
    • Avon
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
    • Paynesville
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Albany
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
    • Collegeville
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Saint Joseph
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Lake Henry
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
      • Lake Henry is located in Stearns County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lake Henry
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 113 people
    • Kimball Prairie
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Kimball Prairie is located in Stearns County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kimball Prairie
  • Benton County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Richmond, with the one closest to Richmond listed first.
    • Evergreen Village
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
      • Evergreen Village is located in Benton County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Evergreen Village
    • Sauk Rapids
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Watab
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Rice
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
      • 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>
    • Duelm
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
  • Kandiyohi County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Richmond, with the one closest to Richmond listed first.
    • Regal
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
      • Regal is located in Kandiyohi County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Regal
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 35 people
    • Hawick
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
    • New London
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
    • Atwater
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Spicer
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
      • Spicer is located in Kandiyohi County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spicer
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,224 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Spicer <1>
    • Kandiyohi
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Kandiyohi is located in Kandiyohi County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kandiyohi
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 477 people
  • Meeker County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Richmond, with the one closest to Richmond listed first.
    • Eden Valley
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
    • Watkins
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Manannah
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
    • Forest City
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
    • Kingston
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Kingston is located in Meeker County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kingston
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 162 people
    • Grove City
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
    • Litchfield
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
    • Darwin
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
    • Dassel
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
    • Rosendale
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
  • Morrison County
  • Sherburne County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Richmond, with the one closest to Richmond listed first.
    • Cable
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
    • Clear Lake
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
  • Todd County
  • Wright County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Richmond, with the one closest to Richmond listed first.
    • South Haven
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
    • Clearwater
      (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
    • Annandale
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
    • Hasty
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
    • Silver Creek
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
      • Silver Creek is located in Wright County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Silver Creek
    • Albion Center
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Albright
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Maple Lake
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Cokato
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)

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

Cemeteries Near Richmond ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Richmond.

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

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Richmond, with the one closest to Richmond 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, Richmond had railroad service and no post office. In 2020, Richmond had a population of 1,478 people.

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

  • Cold Spring
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
  • Roscoe
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
  • Farming
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
    • Farming is located in Stearns County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Farming
  • Saint Nicholas
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Saint Nicholas is located in Stearns County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Saint Nicholas
  • Saint Martin
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Eden Valley
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
  • Rockville
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
  • Watkins
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Paynesville
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Avon
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
  • Albany
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
  • Saint Joseph
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Continue List   (15 more) ...
    • Collegeville
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Luxemburg
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
      • Luxemburg is located in Stearns County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Luxemburg
    • Lake Henry
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
      • Lake Henry is located in Stearns County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lake Henry
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 113 people

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

Newspapers Published in Richmond ...

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 107 newspapers that have been published in the area around Richmond.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Richmond, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Richmond.

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 helpful 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 Richmond:

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