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 Brandon (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 Brandon. 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 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.
Brandon is located in Madison County.
To see how the shape of Montana's counties may have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.
The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Madison County: Fremont (ID), Beaverhead, Gallatin, Jefferson & Silver Bow.
Below are the counties that are near Brandon. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Brandon:
- Madison County (The home county of Brandon)
- The following are listed by their distance from Brandon, with the one closest to Brandon listed first.
- Sheridan
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
- Laurin ‑ Historic
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
- Laurin is located in Madison County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Laurin
- Twin Bridges
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
- Alder
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
- Nevada City ‑ Historic
(13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
- Mammoth
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
- Mammoth is located in Madison County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mammoth
- Central City ‑ Historic
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
- Central City is located in Madison County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Central City
- Virginia City
(15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
- Virginia City is located in Madison County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Virginia City
- Population from the 2020 Census: 225 people
- Former names for Virginia City:
- Varina
- Verina
- Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Virginia City <1>
- Strawberry ‑ Historic
(16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
- Strawberry is located in Madison County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Strawberry
- Silver Star
(16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
- Pony ‑ Historic
(17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
- McAllister
(19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
- Beaverhead County
- The following are listed by their distance from Brandon, with the one closest to Brandon listed first.
- Glen
(26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
- Dillon
(29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
- Jefferson County
- The following are listed by their distance from Brandon, with the one closest to Brandon listed first.
- Piedmont
(25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
- Piedmont is located in Jefferson County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Piedmont
- Whitehall
(27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
- Cardwell
(28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
- Pipestone Hot Springs
(29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
- Pipestone Hot Springs is located in Jefferson County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pipestone Hot Springs
- Pipestone
(29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
- Pipestone is located in Jefferson County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pipestone
- Silver Bow County
- The following are listed by their distance from Brandon, with the one closest to Brandon listed first.
- Melrose
(28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
- Highland City ‑ Historic
(29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)
- Highland City is located in Silver Bow County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Highland City
- Moose Town
(29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)
- Moose Town is located in Silver Bow County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Moose Town
For an expanded list of the communities that are closest to Brandon, see our County-by-County Page for Brandon.
Cemeteries Near Brandon ...
Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Brandon.
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 Brandon - one of the links might be able to help.
If not found below, our Cemetery List for Brandon covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.
The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Brandon, with the one closest to Brandon listed first.
- Sheridan Cemetery
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
- Laurin Cemetery
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
- Masonic Cemetery
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
- Twin Bridges Cemetery
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
- Taylor Cemetery
(11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
- Nevada City Cemetery
(13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
- Point of Rocks Cemetery
(15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
- Boothill Cemetery
(15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
- Virginia City Cemetery
(15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
- Bird Cemetery
(15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
- Silver Star Cemetery
(16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
- Valley View Cemetery
(18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Valley View Cemetery
- The Valley View Cemetery has also been known as:
- Pony Cemetery
- Continue List (18 more) ...
- McAllister Cemetery
(19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for McAllister Cemetery
- The McAllister Cemetery has also been known as:
- Meadow Creek Cemetery
- Fish Creek Cemetery
(20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
- Rochester Cemetery
(20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
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 Brandon in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Brandon.
These communities are listed based on their distance from Brandon, with the one closest to Brandon listed first.
- Sheridan
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
- Laurin ‑ Historic
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
- Laurin is located in Madison County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Laurin
- Twin Bridges
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
- Virginia City
(15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
- Virginia City is located in Madison County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Virginia City
- Population from the 2020 Census: 225 people
- Former names for Virginia City:
- Varina
- Verina
- Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Virginia City <1>
- Silver Star
(16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
- Pony ‑ Historic
(17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
- Ennis
(21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
- Norris
(22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
- Harrison
(23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
- Red Bluff
(25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
- Red Bluff is located in Madison County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Red Bluff
- Glen
(26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
- Whitehall
(27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
- Continue List (6 more) ...
- Apex
(28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
- Apex is located in Beaverhead County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Apex
- Cameron
(28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
- Jefferson Island
(28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
- Jefferson Island is located in Madison County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jefferson Island
We've also created an expanded list of communities that existed in the 1890's and were located in the area around Brandon. See our List of 1890's Communities around Brandon.
Newspapers Published in Brandon ...
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 39 newspapers that have been published in the area around Brandon.
Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Brandon, 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 Brandon.
Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...
When we do our genealogical research, we first visit 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 Brandon:
- Websites specific to Montana
- Pages specific to Madison County
- Genealogy information for nearby counties
- Beaverhead County
- Jefferson County
- Silver Bow County
- Cemetery Information and Directories for Montana
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 Brandon, 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 obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Brandon) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'. |