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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 Shovel 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 Shovel 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 Shovel 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.

For example, a typical abbreviation for Shovel Lake: Shovel 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 northwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals and 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.

Shovel Lake is located in Aitkin 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 Aitkin County: Carlton, Cass, Crow Wing, Itasca, Kanabec, Mille Lacs, Pine & Saint Louis.

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

  • Aitkin County     (The home county of Shovel Lake)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Shovel Lake, with the one closest to Shovel Lake listed first.
    • Swatara
      (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
      • Swatara is located in Aitkin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Swatara
    • Hill City
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
    • Haypoint
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Haypoint is located in Aitkin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Haypoint
    • Palisade
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Jacobson
      (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
    • Libby
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
      • Libby is located in Aitkin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Libby
    • Hassman
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
      • Hassman is located in Aitkin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hassman
    • Minnewawa
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Minnewawa is located in Aitkin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Minnewawa
    • Aitkin
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
    • Kimberly
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Kimberly is located in Aitkin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kimberly
  • Cass County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Shovel Lake, with the one closest to Shovel Lake listed first.
    • Remer
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Outing
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Wabedo
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
      • Wabedo is located in Cass County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wabedo
    • Longville
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
    • Boy River
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
      • Boy River is located in Cass County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Boy River
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 51 people
    • Federal Dam
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Whipholt
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
      • Whipholt is located in Cass County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Whipholt
  • Crow Wing County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Shovel Lake, with the one closest to Shovel Lake listed first.
    • Emily
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Emily is located in Crow Wing County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Emily
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 841 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Emily <1>
    • Fifty Lakes
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Manhattan Beach
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
    • Crosslake
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Itasca County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Shovel Lake, with the one closest to Shovel Lake listed first.
    • Cohasset
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
    • Grand Rapids
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
    • La Prairie
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
      • La Prairie is located in Itasca County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for La Prairie
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 661 people
    • Zemple
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
      • Zemple is located in Itasca County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Zemple
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 90 people
    • Deer River
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
    • Warba
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Swan River
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
    • Bovey
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Coleraine
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Wawina
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
      • Wawina is located in Itasca County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wawina

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

Cemeteries Near Shovel Lake ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Shovel 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.

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 Shovel Lake - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • Lake View Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
  • Hill Lake Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Macville Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Fairview Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fairview Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Fairview Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located outside and to the northwest of Remer.
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #1961404 <2>
  • Hebron Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Heavirland Family Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Waukenabo Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Paulley Children Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
  • Salem Evangelical Lutheran Church Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
  • Pine Ridge Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
  • Verdon Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
  • Harris Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
  • Continue List   (51 more) ...
    • Pine Grove Cemetery
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Blandin Cemetery
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Wildwood Cemetery
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)

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

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

  • Cohasset
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
  • Grand Rapids
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
  • La Prairie
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
    • La Prairie is located in Itasca County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for La Prairie
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 661 people
  • Libby
    (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
    • Libby is located in Aitkin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Libby
  • Blackberry
    (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
    • Blackberry is located in Itasca County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Blackberry
  • Deer River
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
  • Swan River
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
  • Aitkin
    (29 miles [46.7 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 Shovel Lake. See our List of 1890's Communities around Shovel Lake.

Newspapers Published in Shovel 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 31 newspapers that have been published in the area around Shovel Lake.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Shovel Lake, there are papers which were published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Shovel 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 professional and volunteer 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 Shovel Lake:

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>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a '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- Shovel Lake) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<4>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 Shovel Lake, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.