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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 Cooper (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 Cooper. 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 northwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors and hospitals 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.

Cooper is located in Cascade 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 Cascade County: Chouteau, Judith Basin, Lewis and Clark, Meagher & Teton.

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

  • Cascade County     (The home county of Cooper)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Cooper, with the one closest to Cooper listed first.
    • Black Eagle
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Countryside Village
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
      • Countryside Village is located in Cascade County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Countryside Village
    • Great Falls
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Sand Coulee
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
    • Stockett
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
    • Belt
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
      • Belt is located in Cascade County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Belt
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 568 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Belt <1>
    • Armington
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Armington is located in Cascade County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Armington
    • Manchester
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
      • Manchester is located in Cascade County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Manchester
    • Armington Junction
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Armington Junction is located in Cascade County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Armington Junction
    • Sun Prairie
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
      • Sun Prairie is located in Cascade County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sun Prairie
    • Eden
      (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
      • Eden is located in Cascade County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eden
    • Ulm
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
  • Chouteau County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Cooper, with the one closest to Cooper listed first.
    • Floweree
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
    • Highwood
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
    • Carter
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Big Sag
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
      • Big Sag is located in Chouteau County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Big Sag
    • Tunis
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
      • Tunis is located in Chouteau County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tunis
    • Fort Benton
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Judith Basin County
  • Teton County

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

Cemeteries Near Cooper ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Cooper.

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

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

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

  • Mt. Olivet Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Hebrew Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Hillcrest Lawn Memorial Association
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
  • Highland Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Highland Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Highland Cemetery is a very large cemetery that is located outside and to the south of Great Falls.
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #20910 <2>
  • Calvary Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Calvary Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Calvary Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located outside and to the south of Great Falls.
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #20799 <2>
  • Sand Coulee Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
  • Big Stone Colony Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
  • Lower Belt Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
  • Pleasant Valley Colony Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
  • Cottonwood Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
  • Pleasant View Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Sunset Memorial Gardens
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sunset Memorial Gardens
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Sunset Memorial Gardens is a large cemetery that is located 7 miles [11.3 km]<3> to the west of Great Falls.
    • The Sunset Memorial Gardens has also been known as:
    • Sunset Memorial Gardens
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2133894 <2>
  • Continue List   (19 more) ...
    • Red Butte Cemetery
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
    • Ulm Cemetery
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
    • Tiger Butte Cemetery
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)

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

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

  • North Great Falls ‑ Historic
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • North Great Falls is located in Cascade County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Great Falls
  • Watson ‑ Historic
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Watson is located in Cascade County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Watson
  • Great Falls
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
  • Sand Coulee
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
  • Portage
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
    • Portage is located in Cascade County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Portage
  • Belt
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Belt is located in Cascade County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Belt
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 568 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Belt <1>
  • Armington
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Armington is located in Cascade County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Armington
  • Floweree
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
  • Highwood
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
  • Continue List   (6 more) ...
    • Ulm
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
    • Truly
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
      • Truly is located in Cascade County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Truly
    • Vaughn
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
    • Tunis
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
      • Tunis is located in Chouteau County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tunis
    • Evans
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
      • Evans is located in Cascade County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Evans
    • Sun River
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)

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

Newspapers Published in Cooper ...

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 57 newspapers that have been published in the area around Cooper.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Cooper, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Cooper.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we begin with 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 Cooper:

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