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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 Saint Ignatius (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 Saint Ignatius. 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 Saint Ignatius ...

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.

For example, a typical abbreviation for Saint Ignatius: St. Ignatius

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 northwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals 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.

Saint Ignatius is located in Lake 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 Lake County: Flathead, Missoula & Sanders.

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

  • Lake County     (The home county of Saint Ignatius)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Saint Ignatius, with the one closest to Saint Ignatius listed first.
    • Ravalli
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Moiese
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Kicking Horse
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
      • Kicking Horse is located in Lake County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kicking Horse
    • Charlo
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Arlee
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
    • Ronan
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
    • Pablo
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
    • Turtle Lake
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
      • Turtle Lake is located in Lake County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Turtle Lake
    • Kerr
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
      • Kerr is located in Lake County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kerr
    • Polson
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
    • Jette
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
      • Jette is located in Lake County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jette
    • Finley Point
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
      • Finley Point is located in Lake County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Finley Point
    • Rocky Point
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
      • Rocky Point is located in Lake County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rocky Point
  • Mineral County
    • Alberton
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
  • Missoula County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Saint Ignatius, with the one closest to Saint Ignatius listed first.
    • Evaro
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
      • Evaro is located in Missoula County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Evaro
    • Frenchtown
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
    • Huson
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Condon
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
    • Stark
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
      • Stark is located in Missoula County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stark
    • Wye
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
    • De Smet
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
      • De Smet is located in Missoula County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for De Smet
    • Grass Valley
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
      • Grass Valley is located in Missoula County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grass Valley
    • Old Town
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
      • Old Town is located in Missoula County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Old Town
    • Travois Village
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
      • Travois Village is located in Missoula County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Travois Village
    • Seeley Lake
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
  • Sanders County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Saint Ignatius, with the one closest to Saint Ignatius listed first.
    • Agency
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
      • Agency is located in Sanders County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Agency
    • Old Agency
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
      • Old Agency is located in Sanders County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Old Agency
    • Dixon
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)

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

Cemeteries Near Saint Ignatius ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Saint Ignatius.

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 Saint Ignatius - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • St. Ignatius Old Catholic Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
  • St. Ignatius Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
  • Pleasant View Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
  • Dixon Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
  • Jocko Valley Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
  • Ronan Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
  • Frenchtown Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
  • Hospital Cemetery
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
  • Lakeview Cemetery
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
  • Polson Catholic Cemetery
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
  • Camas Prairie Cemetery
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
  • Gingery Cemetery
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
  • Continue List   (7 more) ...
    • Hominsto Cemetery
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
    • Sunset Memorial Gardens
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
    • Missoula Cemetery
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)

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 Saint Ignatius had a population of 23 people in 1895 with railroad service and no post office. In 2020, Saint Ignatius had a population of 842 people.

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

  • Ravalli
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Arlee
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
  • Evaro
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
    • Evaro is located in Missoula County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Evaro
  • Frenchtown
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
  • Huson
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Stark
    (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
    • Stark is located in Missoula County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stark
  • Ninemile
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Ninemile is located in Missoula County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ninemile
  • Grass Valley
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
    • Grass Valley is located in Missoula County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grass Valley
  • De Smet
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
    • De Smet is located in Missoula County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for De Smet
  • Lothrop
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Lothrop is located in Missoula County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lothrop

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Saint Ignatius ...

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 14 newspapers that have been published in the area around Saint Ignatius.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Saint Ignatius. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Saint Ignatius and those printed in the larger area surrounding Saint Ignatius.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<4> of Saint Ignatius.

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 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 Saint Ignatius:

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 Saint Ignatius, 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' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Saint Ignatius) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.