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 Elso (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 Elso. 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 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.

Elso is located in Musselshell 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 Musselshell County: Fergus, Golden Valley, Petroleum, Rosebud, Treasure & Yellowstone.

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

• Musselshell County     (The home county of Elso)
  • The following are listed by their distance from Elso, with the one closest to Elso listed first.
  • Klein
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Klein have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Klein
    • Klein is located in Musselshell County
  • Camp Three
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Camp Three have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Camp Three
    • Camp Three is located in Musselshell County
  • Roundup
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Roundup have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Roundup
    • Roundup is located in Musselshell County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,864 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Roundup <2>
  • Musselshell
    (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Musselshell
    • Musselshell is located in Musselshell County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Musselshell <2>
• Golden Valley County
  • The following are listed by their distance from Elso, with the one closest to Elso listed first.
  • Lavina
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Lavina have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lavina
    • Lavina is located in Golden Valley County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 168 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Lavina <2>
  • Ryegate
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Ryegate have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ryegate
    • Ryegate is located in Golden Valley County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 235 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Ryegate <2>
• Yellowstone County
  • The following are listed by their distance from Elso, with the one closest to Elso listed first.
  • Broadview
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Broadview
    • Broadview is located in Yellowstone County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 182 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Broadview <2>
  • Comanche
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Comanche
    • Comanche is located in Yellowstone County
  • Acton
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Acton
    • Acton is located in Yellowstone County

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

Newspapers Published in Elso ...

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 8 newspapers that have been published in the area around Elso.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Elso, there are papers which were published within 27 miles [43.5 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Elso.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first visit 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 Elso:

• 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 Musselshell County
  • Jump to Cyndi's List
  • Jump to Family Search
  • Jump to Genealogy Trails

• Genealogy information for nearby counties
  • Golden Valley County
    • Jump to Cyndi's List
    • Jump to Family Search
    • Jump to Genealogy Trails
  • Yellowstone 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 Musselshell County
  • FamilySearch.org: Cemeteries of Montana
  • Find-A-Grave: Home Page
  • Interment.net
  • Cemeteries of Montana
  • Cemeteries of Musselshell County

Cemeteries Near Elso ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Elso.

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

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

• United Mine Workers of America Cemetery
  (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the United Mine Workers of America Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the United Mine Workers of America Cemetery
• Miracle Lodge #84 Cemetery
  (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Miracle Lodge #84 Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Miracle Lodge #84 Cemetery
• Roundup Cemetery
  (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Roundup Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Roundup Cemetery
• Lavina Cemetery
  (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Lavina Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Lavina Cemetery
• Belmont Cemetery
  (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Belmont Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Belmont Cemetery
• Broadview Cemetery
  (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
  • To give a relative sense of its location, the Broadview Cemetery is located outside and to the southeast of Broadview.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Broadview Cemetery
  • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2242360 <4>
• Hoskin Basin Cemetery
  (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Hoskin Basin Cemetery
  • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #20932 <4>
• Assumption Catholic Church Cemetery
  (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Assumption Catholic Church Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Assumption Catholic Church Cemetery
• Helm Memorial Cemetery
  (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
  • The Helm Memorial Cemetery has also been known as:
  • Comanche Cemetery
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Helm Memorial Cemetery
  • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #20824 <4>
• Resurrection Cemetery
  (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Resurrection Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Resurrection Cemetery
• Ryegate Cemetery
  (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Ryegate Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Ryegate Cemetery
• Musselshell Cemetery
  (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Musselshell Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Musselshell 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.<5>

While we didn't find Elso in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Elso.

• Roundup
  (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Roundup have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Roundup
  • Roundup is located in Musselshell County
  • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,864 people
  • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Roundup <2>

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

Off-the-Road Links ...

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

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