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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 Cowan (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 Cowan. 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.

Cowan is located in Gallatin 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 Gallatin County: Fremont (ID), Broadwater, Jefferson, Madison, Meagher, Park, Park (WY) & Teton (WY).

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

  • Gallatin County     (The home county of Cowan)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Cowan, with the one closest to Cowan listed first.
    • Belgrade
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Four Corners
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
      • Four Corners is located in Gallatin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Four Corners
    • Story
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
      • Story is located in Gallatin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Story
    • Catron
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
      • Catron is located in Gallatin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Catron
    • Wisner Crossing
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Wisner Crossing is located in Gallatin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wisner Crossing
    • Amsterdam - Churchill
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
      • Amsterdam - Churchill is located in Gallatin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Amsterdam - Churchill
    • Amsterdam
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Churchill
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
      • Churchill is located in Gallatin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Churchill
    • Bozeman
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
    • Arnold
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
      • Arnold is located in Gallatin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Arnold
    • Gallatin Gateway
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
    • Hillman
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
      • Hillman is located in Gallatin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hillman
  • Broadwater County
    • Copper City
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
      • Copper City is located in Broadwater County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Copper City
  • Madison County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Cowan, with the one closest to Cowan listed first.
    • Red Bluff
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
      • Red Bluff is located in Madison County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Red Bluff
    • Norris
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Harrison
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
  • Park County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Cowan, with the one closest to Cowan listed first.
    • Hoppers
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
      • Hoppers is located in Park County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hoppers
    • Clyde Park
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
    • Livingston
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)

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

Cemeteries Near Cowan ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Cowan.

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

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

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

  • Sunset Memorial Park
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sunset Memorial Park
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Sunset Memorial Park is a large cemetery that is located outside and to the northwest of Bozeman.
    • The Sunset Memorial Park has also been known as:
    • Gallatin Valley Sunset Memorial Gardens
    • Sunset Memorial Gardens
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2132998 <2>
  • Churchill Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
  • Hills Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Little Holland Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Brondel Catholic Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
  • Holy Rosary Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
  • Gallatin Gateway Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
  • Sunset Hills Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
  • Walker Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
  • East Gallatin Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
  • Courts Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
  • Meadowview Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Meadowview Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Meadowview Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located 2 miles [3.2 km]<3> to the southeast of Manhattan.
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #20989 <2>
  • Continue List   (24 more) ...
    • Dry Creek Cemetery
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
    • Springhill Cemetery
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Reese Creek Cemetery
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Reese Creek Cemetery
      • The Reese Creek Cemetery has also been known as:
      • Old Mormon Cemetery

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

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

  • Belgrade
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
  • Story
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Story is located in Gallatin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Story
  • Bozeman
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
  • Springhill
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Springhill is located in Gallatin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Springhill
  • Manhattan
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Chestnut
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
    • Chestnut is located in Gallatin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chestnut
  • Logan
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Logan is located in Gallatin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Logan
  • West End
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
    • West End is located in Gallatin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West End
  • Gallop ‑ Historic
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
    • Gallop is located in Gallatin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gallop
  • Muir
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
    • Muir is located in Park County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Muir
  • Gallatin ‑ Historic
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Gallatin is located in Gallatin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gallatin
  • Three Forks
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Continue List   (6 more) ...
    • Hoppers
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
      • Hoppers is located in Park County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hoppers
    • Sedan
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
      • Sedan is located in Gallatin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sedan
    • Willow Creek
      (23 miles [37 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 Cowan. See our List of 1890's Communities around Cowan.

Newspapers Published in Cowan ...

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 46 newspapers that have been published in the area around Cowan.

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

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 Cowan:

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 '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- Cowan) 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 Cowan, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.