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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 Richville (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 Richville. 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 northeast 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 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.

Richville is located in Otter Tail 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 Otter Tail County: Becker, Clay, Douglas, Grant, Todd, Wadena & Wilkin.

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

  • Otter Tail County     (The home county of Richville)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Richville, with the one closest to Richville listed first.
    • Dent
      (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
      • Dent is located in Otter Tail County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dent
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 185 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Dent <1>
    • Perham
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
      • Perham is located in Otter Tail County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Perham
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 3,638 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Perham <1>
    • Ottertail
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Amor
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
      • Amor is located in Otter Tail County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Amor
    • Leaf City
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Leaf City is located in Otter Tail County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Leaf City
    • New York Mills
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
    • Maine
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Maine is located in Otter Tail County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Maine
    • Vergas
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Battle Lake
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
    • Clitherall
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
    • Nirvana
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
      • Nirvana is located in Otter Tail County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nirvana
    • Henning
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Davies
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Davies is located in Otter Tail County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Davies
  • Becker County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Richville, with the one closest to Richville listed first.
    • Frazee
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
    • Evergreen
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
      • Evergreen is located in Becker County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Evergreen
    • Bucks Mill
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
      • Bucks Mill is located in Becker County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bucks Mill
    • Detroit Lakes
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
    • Rochert
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
    • Wolf Lake
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
      • Wolf Lake is located in Becker County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wolf Lake
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 55 people
    • Cormorant
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
      • Cormorant is located in Becker County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cormorant
    • Audubon
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Douglas County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Richville, with the one closest to Richville listed first.
    • Melby
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
      • Melby is located in Douglas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Melby
    • Millerville
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
      • Millerville is located in Douglas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Millerville
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 103 people
  • Grant County
    • Ashby
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
  • Todd County
    • Hewitt
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Hewitt is located in Todd County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hewitt
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 260 people
  • Wadena County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Richville, with the one closest to Richville listed first.
    • Sebeka
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
    • Menahga
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Verndale
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)

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

Cemeteries Near Richville ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Richville.

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

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

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

  • Richville Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
  • St. Joseph Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
  • St. Lawrence Church Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
  • Salem EUB Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
  • Pleasant Hill Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
  • Immanuel Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
  • Sacred Heart Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
  • Oakwood Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Perham Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
  • St. Paul Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
  • St. Henry Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
  • Pleasant Hill Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Continue List   (211 more) ...

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.<2>

While we didn't find Richville in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Richville.

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

  • Ottertail
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Perham
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Perham is located in Otter Tail County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Perham
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 3,638 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Perham <1>
  • Amor
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Amor is located in Otter Tail County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Amor
  • Luce
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
    • Luce is located in Otter Tail County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Luce
  • Maine
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Maine is located in Otter Tail County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Maine
  • New York Mills
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
  • Phelps
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Phelps is located in Otter Tail County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Phelps
  • Frazee
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
  • Battle Lake
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
  • Clitherall
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
  • Henning
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Deer Creek
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Deer Creek is located in Otter Tail County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Deer Creek
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 321 people
  • Continue List   (17 more) ...
    • Davies
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Davies is located in Otter Tail County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Davies
    • Edwards
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
      • Edwards is located in Otter Tail County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Edwards
    • Vining
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)

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

Newspapers Published in Richville ...

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 43 newspapers that have been published in the area around Richville.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Richville, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Richville.

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 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 Richville:

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>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 Richville, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<3>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 from Point A (ie- Richville) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.