RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Montana >> Missoula County >> McClain >> Genealogy HelperIndex...

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 McClain (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 McClain. 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 hospitals and 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.

McClain is located in Missoula 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 Missoula County: Clearwater (ID), Idaho (ID), Flathead, Granite, Lake, Mineral, Powell, Ravalli & Sanders.

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

  • Missoula County     (The home county of McClain)
    • The following are listed by their distance from McClain, with the one closest to McClain listed first.
    • Lolo
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Orchard Homes
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
      • Orchard Homes is located in Missoula County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Orchard Homes
    • Missoula
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
    • Travois Village
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
      • Travois Village is located in Missoula County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Travois Village
    • East Missoula
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
      • East Missoula is located in Missoula County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for East Missoula
    • Milltown
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Piltzville
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
      • Piltzville is located in Missoula County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Piltzville
    • De Smet
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
      • De Smet is located in Missoula County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for De Smet
    • Bonner
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Grass Valley
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
      • Grass Valley is located in Missoula County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grass Valley
    • Clinton
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
    • Wye
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
  • Mineral County
    • Alberton
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Ravalli County
    • The following are listed by their distance from McClain, with the one closest to McClain listed first.
    • Florence
      (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Stevensville
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
    • Cinnabar Court
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
      • Cinnabar Court is located in Ravalli County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cinnabar Court
    • Bing
      (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
      • Bing is located in Ravalli County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bing
    • Victor
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
    • Pinesdale
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
    • Corvallis
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)

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

Cemeteries Near McClain ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of McClain.

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

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

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

  • Florence - Carlton Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
  • St. Joseph's Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
  • Post Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
  • Woodman Pioneer Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Sunnyside Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Sunset Memorial Gardens
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
  • St. Marys Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
  • Maplewood Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
  • St. Mary Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
  • St. Mary Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
  • Missoula Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
  • Riverview Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
  • Continue List   (6 more) ...
    • Victor Cemetery
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
    • Frenchtown Cemetery
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
    • Pinesdale Cemetery
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pinesdale Cemetery
      • The Pinesdale Cemetery has also been known as:
      • Ted Weidow Sr. Memorial 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.<3>

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

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

  • Carlton
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
    • Carlton is located in Missoula County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Carlton
  • Lolo
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
  • Bitter Root ‑ Historic
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
    • Bitter Root is located in Ravalli County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bitter Root
  • Missoula
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
  • Stevensville
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
  • Bonner
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
  • De Smet
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
    • De Smet is located in Missoula County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for De Smet
  • Grass Valley
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
    • Grass Valley is located in Missoula County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grass Valley
  • Clinton
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
  • Victor
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
  • Frenchtown
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
  • Evaro
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
    • Evaro is located in Missoula County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Evaro
  • Continue List   (6 more) ...
    • Huson
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Potomac
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
      • Potomac is located in Missoula County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Potomac
    • Ninemile
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Ninemile is located in Missoula County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ninemile

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

Newspapers Published in McClain ...

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 McClain.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of McClain, there are papers which were published within 27 miles [43.5 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for McClain.

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 professional and volunteer 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 McClain:

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>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 McClain, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<4>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or 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- McClain) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.