Our Genealogy Helper

Introduction ...

So far, we found very little information about Ragland Bench. The little that we've found leads us believe that the community is historic.<1>

We've added Ragland Bench to our Gazetteer with the hope that we can develop more information. If you can help us with Ragland Bench, please Contact Us.

---

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 Ragland Bench (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 Ragland Bench. 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.

Although our information shows that the community of Ragland Bench is historic, it would have been located within present day Blaine 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 Blaine County: Chouteau, Fergus, Hill & Phillips.

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

• Fergus County
  • The following are listed by their distance from Ragland Bench, with the one closest to Ragland Bench listed first.
  • Winifred
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Winifred have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Winifred
    • Winifred is located in Fergus County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 196 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Winifred <3>
  • Christina
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Christina
    • Christina is located in Fergus County

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

Newspapers Published in Ragland Bench ...

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 1 newspapers that have been published in the area around Ragland Bench.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Ragland Bench, there are papers which were published within 15 miles [24.1 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Ragland Bench.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we like to start with 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 Ragland Bench:

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

• Genealogy information for nearby counties
  • Fergus 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 Blaine County
  • FamilySearch.org: Cemeteries of Montana
  • Find-A-Grave: Home Page
  • Interment.net
  • Cemeteries of Montana
  • Cemeteries of Blaine County

Cemeteries Near Ragland Bench ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Ragland Bench.

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

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

• Alice Nash Memorial Cemetery
  (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Alice Nash Memorial Cemetery
• Winifred Cemetery
  (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Winifred Cemetery
• Everson Cemetery
  (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Everson Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Everson Cemetery
• Hungry Hollow Cemetery
  (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Hungry Hollow Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Hungry Hollow 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.

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

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

• Judith ‑ Historic
  (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Judith have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Judith
  • Judith is located in Fergus County
• Warrick
  (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Warrick have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Warrick
  • Warrick is located in Chouteau County
• Christina
  (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Christina
  • Christina is located in Fergus County

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

Off-the-Road Links ...

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