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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 Crystal Ford (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 Crystal Ford. 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.

Name Variations for Crystal Ford ...

When searching records, keep in mind that names and their spelling can change over time. Our sources include documents like maps, railroad schedules, Travel, Express and Shipping Guides. Many of these documents date from the 1800's and it's common to find spelling differences.

Although we can't give a definitive list, hopefully the following will give you a feel for the variations that might have occurred.

For example, a typical abbreviation for Crystal Ford: Crystal Frd.

If you have information about these names (such as the reason for the change, date of change, the origin of the name), please Contact Us.

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 hospitals and 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.

Crystal Ford is located in Flathead County.

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 Flathead County: Glacier, Lake, Lewis and Clark, Lincoln, Missoula, Pondera, Powell, Sanders & Teton.

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

  • Flathead County     (The home county of Crystal Ford)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Crystal Ford, with the one closest to Crystal Ford listed first.
    • West Glacier
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Coram
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Martin City
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Hungry Horse
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Hungry Horse have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hungry Horse
      • Hungry Horse is located in Flathead County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Hungry Horse <1>
    • Polebridge
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Columbia Falls
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Halfmoon
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Halfmoon have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Halfmoon
      • Halfmoon is located in Flathead County
    • Essex
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Whitefish
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
    • McCarthyville ‑ Historic
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for McCarthyville have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for McCarthyville
      • McCarthyville is located in Flathead County
  • Glacier County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Crystal Ford, with the one closest to Crystal Ford listed first.
    • Swiftcurrent
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Swiftcurrent
      • Swiftcurrent is located in Glacier County
    • Rising Sun
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rising Sun
      • Rising Sun is located in Glacier County
    • Saint Mary
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Babb
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Kiowa
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
    • East Glacier Park Village
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)

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

Newspapers Published in Crystal Ford ...

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 9 newspapers that have been published in the area around Crystal Ford.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Crystal Ford, there are papers which were published within 26 miles [41.8 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Crystal Ford.

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 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 Crystal Ford:

Cemeteries Near Crystal Ford ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Crystal Ford.

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 Crystal Ford covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

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

  • St. Richard Cemetery
    (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Richard Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Richard Cemetery
  • Woodlawn Cemetery
    (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
  • Soldiers Home Cemetery
    (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Soldiers Home Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Soldiers Home Cemetery
  • Babb Cemetery
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
  • Whitefish Cemetery
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Whitefish Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Whitefish Cemetery
  • Schildt Cemetery
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Schildt Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Schildt Cemetery
  • Fairview Cemetery
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Fairview Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Fairview 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 Crystal Ford in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Crystal Ford.

  • Columbia Falls
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)

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

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

The official website for Flathead County: www.co.flathead.mt.us/

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

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 location has been supplied by the Geographic Names Information System - which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While these values should be definitive, we found that accuracy can vary and you should double-check the location if accuracy is required.
<3>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Crystal Ford) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Crystal Ford. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 48.6089, Longitude: -113.8487       In this case, the coordinates for Crystal Ford have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<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 Crystal Ford, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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In closing, please keep in mind that we can not guarantee the accuracy or timeliness of the information on this website, so use with care. We encourage you to double-check the information that is critical to you.

If you've found an error or have additional information that you would like to share, please don't hesitate to write: Click here to contact us.

This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024