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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 Brewer (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 Brewer. 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.

Brewer is located in Broadwater 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 Broadwater County: Gallatin, Jefferson, Lewis and Clark & Meagher.

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

  • Broadwater County     (The home county of Brewer)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Brewer, with the one closest to Brewer listed first.
    • Toston
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Crow Creek City ‑ Historic
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
      • Crow Creek City is located in Broadwater County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crow Creek City
    • Radersburg
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
    • Copper City
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Copper City is located in Broadwater County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Copper City
    • Townsend
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Winston
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Gallatin County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Brewer, with the one closest to Brewer listed first.
    • Francis
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
      • Francis is located in Gallatin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Francis
    • Gallop ‑ Historic
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
      • Gallop is located in Gallatin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gallop
    • Three Forks
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
    • Manhattan
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
    • Hillman
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
      • Hillman is located in Gallatin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hillman
    • Willow Creek
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Amsterdam
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
    • Amsterdam - Churchill
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
      • Amsterdam - Churchill is located in Gallatin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Amsterdam - Churchill
    • Churchill
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
      • Churchill is located in Gallatin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Churchill
    • Belgrade
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Arnold
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
      • Arnold is located in Gallatin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Arnold
    • Sedan
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Sedan is located in Gallatin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sedan
    • Wisner Crossing
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Wisner Crossing is located in Gallatin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wisner Crossing
  • Jefferson County
    • Elkhorn
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
      • Elkhorn is located in Jefferson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elkhorn
  • Meagher County

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

Cemeteries Near Brewer ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Brewer.

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

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

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

  • Shull Cemetery
    • The Shull Cemetery is located on private property - be sure to secure permission before visiting.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shull Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2384725 <2>
  • Deep Creek Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Deep Creek Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Deep Creek Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located 3 miles [4.8 km]<3> to the southeast of Townsend.
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #212216 <2>
  • Parker Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
  • Radersburg Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
  • Holy Cross Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
  • Centerville Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
  • Headwaters Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
  • Morgan Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Logan Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
  • Fly Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
  • St. Josephs Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
  • Fairview Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
  • Continue List   (18 more) ...
    • Dry Creek Cemetery
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Fairview Cemetery
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
    • Lavina Chapel Cemetery
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lavina Chapel Cemetery
      • To give a relative sense of its location, the Lavina Chapel Cemetery is located 9 miles [14.5 km]<3> to the north of Townsend.
      • The Lavina Chapel Cemetery has also been known as:
      • Duck Creek Cemetery
      • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2264764 <2>

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

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

  • Toston
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Townsend
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
  • Gallatin ‑ Historic
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
    • Gallatin is located in Gallatin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gallatin
  • Logan
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
    • Logan is located in Gallatin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Logan
  • Three Forks
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
  • Gallop ‑ Historic
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
    • Gallop is located in Gallatin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gallop
  • Canton
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
    • Canton is located in Broadwater County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Canton
  • Manhattan
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
  • Sixteen
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
    • Sixteen is located in Meagher County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sixteen
  • Willow Creek
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
  • Belgrade
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Springhill
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Springhill is located in Gallatin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Springhill
  • Elkhorn
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
    • Elkhorn is located in Jefferson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elkhorn
  • Sedan
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Sedan is located in Gallatin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sedan

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

Newspapers Published in Brewer ...

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 23 newspapers that have been published in the area around Brewer.

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

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 either 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 Brewer:

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 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Brewer) 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 Brewer, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.