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 Chester (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 Chester. 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 southeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals were in the next county to the east. 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 east 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.

Chester is located in Liberty County and is the County Seat.

To see how the shape of Montana's counties have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Liberty County: Chouteau, Hill, Pondera & Toole.

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

• Liberty County     (The home county of Chester)
  • The following are listed by their distance from Chester, with the one closest to Chester listed first.
  • Joplin
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Joplin have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Joplin
    • Joplin is located in Liberty County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Joplin <2>
  • Whitlash
    (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Whitlash
    • Whitlash is located in Liberty County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Whitlash <2>
• Hill County
  • The following are listed by their distance from Chester, with the one closest to Chester listed first.
  • Inverness
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Inverness have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Inverness
    • Inverness is located in Hill County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Inverness <2>
  • Rudyard
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Rudyard have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rudyard
    • Rudyard is located in Hill County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Rudyard <2>
  • Hingham
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Hingham have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hingham
    • Hingham is located in Hill County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 118 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Hingham <2>
  • Gildford
    (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Gildford have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gildford
    • Gildford is located in Hill County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Gildford <2>
• Toole County
  • Galata
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Galata
    • Galata is located in Toole County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Galata <2>

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Chester ...

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 21 newspapers that have been published in the area around Chester.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

• A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Chester. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Chester and those printed in the larger area surrounding Chester.
• An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<3> of Chester.

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 Chester:

• Websites specific to Montana
  • Jump to Cyndi's List
  • Jump to Family Search
  • Jump to Genealogy Trails
  • Website for the Montana Historical Society

• Pages specific to Liberty County
  • Jump to Cyndi's List
  • Jump to Family Search
  • Jump to Genealogy Trails

• Genealogy information for nearby counties
  • Hill County
    • Jump to Cyndi's List
    • Jump to Family Search
    • Jump to Genealogy Trails
  • Toole County
    • Jump to Cyndi's List
    • Jump to Family Search
    • Jump to Genealogy Trails

• Cemetery Information and Directories for Montana
  • Cemetery Junction: Cemeteries of Montana
  • Cyndi's List
  • Cemeteries of Montana
  • Cemeteries of Liberty County
  • FamilySearch.org: Cemeteries of Montana
  • Find-A-Grave: Home Page
  • Interment.net
  • Cemeteries of Montana

Cemeteries Near Chester ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Chester.

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.

If you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our selection of Genealogy Websites (see below).

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

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

• Chester Cemetery
  (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Chester Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Chester Cemetery
• Joplin Cemetery
  (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Joplin Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Joplin Cemetery
• Lothair Protestant Cemetery
  (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Lothair Protestant Cemetery
• Lothair Catholic Cemetery
  (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
  • The Lothair Catholic Cemetery has also been known as:
  • Hemmer Cemetery
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Lothair Catholic Cemetery
• Erickson Cemetery
  (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Erickson Cemetery
  • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #20862 <4>
• Eagle Creek Colony Cemetery
  (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Eagle Creek Colony Cemetery
  • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2321106 <4>
• Galata Cemetery
  (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Galata Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Galata Cemetery
• Bethel Cemetery
  (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Bethel Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Bethel Cemetery
• Rudyard Cemetery
  (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Rudyard Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Rudyard Cemetery
• Trinity Cemetery
  (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Trinity Cemetery
• Riverview Colony Cemetery
  (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Riverview Colony Cemetery
• Grandview Cemetery
  (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
  • The Grandview Cemetery has also been known as:
  • Grand View Cemetery
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Grandview Cemetery
  • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2330908 <4>
• Continue List   (8 more) ...
  • Devon Cemetery
    (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Devon Cemetery
  • St. Olaf Lutheran Cemetery
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Olaf Lutheran Cemetery
  • Wolfe Cemetery
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Wolfe Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2341515 <4>

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

Off-the-Road Links ...

Unfortunately, we don't know of a website for Chester. If you can help, please contact us through our Feedback Page.

The official website for State of Montana: https://mt.gov/