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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 Potomac (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 Potomac. 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 southwest 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 south.

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 south 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.

Potomac 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 Potomac. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Potomac:

  • Missoula County     (The home county of Potomac)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Potomac, with the one closest to Potomac listed first.
    • Greenough
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
    • Clinton
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Bonner
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
    • Piltzville
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
      • Piltzville is located in Missoula County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Piltzville
    • Milltown
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
    • East Missoula
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
      • East Missoula is located in Missoula County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for East Missoula
    • Missoula
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
    • Seeley Lake
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
    • Travois Village
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
      • Travois Village is located in Missoula County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Travois Village
    • Orchard Homes
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
      • Orchard Homes is located in Missoula County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Orchard Homes
    • De Smet
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
      • De Smet is located in Missoula County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for De Smet
    • Grass Valley
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
      • Grass Valley is located in Missoula County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grass Valley
  • Granite County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Potomac, with the one closest to Potomac listed first.
    • Garnet ‑ Historic
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
      • Garnet is located in Granite County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Garnet
    • Stump Town ‑ Historic
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
      • Stump Town is located in Granite County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stump Town
    • Beartown ‑ Historic
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Beartown is located in Granite County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Beartown
    • Bearmouth ‑ Historic
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Bearmouth is located in Granite County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bearmouth
    • Drummond
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Hall
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
    • New Chicago
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
      • New Chicago is located in Granite County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for New Chicago
    • Stone
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Stone is located in Granite County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stone
  • Lake County
  • Powell County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Potomac, with the one closest to Potomac listed first.
    • Reynolds City
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
      • Reynolds City is located in Powell County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Reynolds City
    • Ovando
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
    • Helmville
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
  • Ravalli County

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

Cemeteries Near Potomac ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Potomac.

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

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

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

  • Sand Park Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sand Park Cemetery
    • The Sand Park Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Coloma Cemetery
  • Beartown Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Seeley Lake Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
  • St. Mary Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
  • St. Mary Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
  • Missoula Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
  • Post Cemetery
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
  • Ovando Cemetery
    (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
  • Sunset Memorial Gardens
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
  • Florence - Carlton Cemetery
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Valley Cemetery
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Valley Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Valley Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located outside and to the northeast of New Chicago.
    • The Valley Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Drummond Cemetery
    • New Chicago Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #21151 <2>
  • Jocko Valley Cemetery
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Continue List   (4 more) ...
    • St. Joseph's Cemetery
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Sunnyside Cemetery
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Helmville Cemetery
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)

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>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that in 1895, Potomac had a post office and no railroad service.

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

  • Clinton
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Beartown ‑ Historic
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Beartown is located in Granite County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Beartown
  • Bonner
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
  • Missoula
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
  • Ovando
    (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
  • De Smet
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
    • De Smet is located in Missoula County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for De Smet
  • Lolo
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
  • Drummond
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
  • Grass Valley
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
    • Grass Valley is located in Missoula County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grass Valley
  • Evaro
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Evaro is located in Missoula County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Evaro
  • Carlton
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Carlton is located in Missoula County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Carlton
  • Helmville
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)

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

Newspapers Published in Potomac ...

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 56 newspapers that have been published in the area around Potomac.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Potomac, there are papers which were published within 25 miles [40.2 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Potomac.

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 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 Potomac:

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 Potomac, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<4>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 from Point A (ie- Potomac) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.