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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 Vern (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 Vern. 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 southwest 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 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 west 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.

Vern is located in Clearwater 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 Clearwater County: Becker, Beltrami, Hubbard, Mahnomen, Pennington & Polk.

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

  • Clearwater County     (The home county of Vern)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Vern, with the one closest to Vern listed first.
    • Minerva
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Minerva is located in Clearwater County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Minerva
    • Long Lost Lake
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Long Lost Lake is located in Clearwater County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Long Lost Lake
      • Estimated population in 2015: 44 people
    • Shevlin
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
    • Rice Lake
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
      • Rice Lake is located in Clearwater County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rice Lake
    • Bagley
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
      • Bagley is located in Clearwater County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bagley
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,439 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Bagley <1>
    • Leonard
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
    • Clearbrook
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
  • Becker County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Vern, with the one closest to Vern listed first.
    • Two Inlets
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
      • Two Inlets is located in Becker County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Two Inlets
    • Elbow Lake
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
      • Elbow Lake is located in Becker County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elbow Lake
    • Pine Point
      (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
      • Pine Point is located in Becker County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pine Point
    • Ponsford
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
    • Osage
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
  • Beltrami County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Vern, with the one closest to Vern listed first.
    • Solway
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
    • Wilton
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
      • Wilton is located in Beltrami County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wilton
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 295 people
    • Bemidji
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Rosby
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
      • Rosby is located in Beltrami County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rosby
    • Pinewood
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
      • Pinewood is located in Beltrami County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pinewood
    • Lavinia
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
      • Lavinia is located in Beltrami County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lavinia
    • Turtle River
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Turtle River is located in Beltrami County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Turtle River
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 80 people
    • Debs
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
      • Debs is located in Beltrami County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Debs
    • Puposky
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Puposky is located in Beltrami County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Puposky
  • Cass County
    • Cass Lake
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
  • Hubbard County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Vern, with the one closest to Vern listed first.
    • Lake George
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Laporte
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
    • Benedict
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
      • Benedict is located in Hubbard County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Benedict
    • Dorset
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
      • Dorset is located in Hubbard County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dorset
    • Park Rapids
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
    • Nevis
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Akeley
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Mahnomen County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Vern, with the one closest to Vern listed first.
    • Roy Lake
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
      • Roy Lake is located in Mahnomen County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Roy Lake
    • Naytahwaush
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
  • Polk County
    • Lengby
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
      • Lengby is located in Polk County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lengby
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 86 people

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

Cemeteries Near Vern ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Vern.

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

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

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

  • Sell Lake Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
  • Old Sell Lake Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
  • Stevens Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Alida Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
  • Pioneer Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
  • Lake Alice Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Fern Twp. Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Rice Free Lutheran Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
  • Moose Creek Twp. Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
  • Jones Twp. Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
  • Nora Twp. Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nora Twp. Cemetery
    • The Nora Twp. Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Bethel Lutheran Church Cemetery
    • Nora Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #82896 <2>
  • Shevlin - Moose Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
  • Continue List   (99 more) ...
    • Lakeside Cemetery
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
    • Solway Cemetery
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
    • Clearwater Cemetery
      (16 miles [25.7 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.<3>

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

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

  • Osage
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
  • Park Rapids
    (27 miles [43.5 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 Vern. See our List of 1890's Communities around Vern.

Newspapers Published in Vern ...

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 66 newspapers that have been published in the area around Vern.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Vern, 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 Vern.

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 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 Vern:

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 Vern, 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 obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Vern) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.