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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 Soda Springs (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 Soda Springs. 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 Soda Springs ...

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.

Although we can't give a definitive list, hopefully the following will give you a feel for the variations that might have occurred.

For example, a typical abbreviation for Soda Springs: Soda Spgs. (or less commonly used: Soda Spngs. or Soda Sprngs.)

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 northeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals were in the next county to the east. 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 east 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.

Soda Springs is located in Yellowstone 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 Yellowstone County: Big Horn, Carbon, Golden Valley, Musselshell, Rosebud, Stillwater & Treasure.

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

  • Yellowstone County     (The home county of Soda Springs)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Soda Springs, with the one closest to Soda Springs listed first.
    • Lockwood
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Lockwood have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lockwood
      • Lockwood is located in Yellowstone County
    • Billings
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Billings
      • Billings is located in Yellowstone County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 109,736 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Billings <2>
    • Huntley
      (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Huntley have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Huntley
      • Huntley is located in Yellowstone County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Huntley <2>
    • Hesper
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hesper
      • Hesper is located in Yellowstone County
    • Rimrock
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rimrock
      • Rimrock is located in Yellowstone County
    • Laurel
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Laurel
      • Laurel is located in Yellowstone County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 6,715 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Laurel <2>
    • Shepherd
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Shepherd have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shepherd
      • Shepherd is located in Yellowstone County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Shepherd <2>
    • Ballantine
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Ballantine have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ballantine
      • Ballantine is located in Yellowstone County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Ballantine <2>
    • Worden
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
  • Big Horn County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Soda Springs, with the one closest to Soda Springs listed first.
    • Pryor
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Pryor have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pryor
      • Pryor is located in Big Horn County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Pryor <2>
    • Fort Smith
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Saint Xavier
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
  • Carbon County

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

Newspapers Published in Soda Springs ...

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 53 newspapers that have been published in the area around Soda Springs.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Soda Springs, 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 Soda Springs.

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 Soda Springs:

Cemeteries Near Soda Springs ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Soda Springs.

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

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

  • Pryor Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
  • Plenty Coups State Park Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Singgood Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for the Singgood Cemetery. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<5>
    • The Singgood Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Sing Good Cemetery
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Singgood Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #21116 <4>
  • Big Day Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Holy Cross Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
  • Riverside Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
  • Boothill Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Boothill Cemetery is located in Billings.
    • The Boothill Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Coulson Cemetery
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Boothill Cemetery
  • Sunset Memorial Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
  • Mountview Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Mountview Cemetery is a very large cemetery that is located in Billings.
    • The Mountview Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Billings Cemetery
    • Mountain View Cemetery
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Mountview Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #21014 <4>
  • Cooke Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
  • Beth Aaron Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
  • Calvary Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
  • Continue List   (17 more) ...

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.<6>

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

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

  • Billings
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Billings
    • Billings is located in Yellowstone County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 109,736 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Billings <2>
  • Huntley
    (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Huntley have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Huntley
    • Huntley is located in Yellowstone County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Huntley <2>
  • Laurel
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Laurel
    • Laurel is located in Yellowstone County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 6,715 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Laurel <2>

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

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

The official website for Yellowstone County: www.co.yellowstone.mt.us/

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

Footnotes ...

<1>The location has been supplied by the Geographic Names Information System - which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While these values should be definitive, we found that accuracy can vary and you should double-check the location if accuracy is required.
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<3>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- Soda Springs) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Soda Springs. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 45.5655, Longitude: -108.2723       In this case, the coordinates for Soda Springs have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<4>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.
<5>An 'estimated' location is one where we have been given GPS coordinates, but are unable to verify the accuracy of those coordinates. That said, we have some confidence that we have placed the marker near the actual location. A typical reason for being unable to verify a location is that it might be on private property or maybe historic and gone without an obvious trace.
<6>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 Soda Springs, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024