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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 Thompson Falls (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 Thompson Falls. 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 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.

Thompson Falls is located in Sanders County and is the County Seat.

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 Sanders County: Bonner (ID), Shoshone (ID), Flathead, Lake, Lincoln, Mineral & Missoula.

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

  • Sanders County     (The home county of Thompson Falls)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Thompson Falls, with the one closest to Thompson Falls listed first.
    • Eddy
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
      • Eddy is located in Sanders County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eddy
    • Trout Creek
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Plains
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
    • Tuscor
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Tuscor is located in Sanders County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tuscor
    • Paradise
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Island City ‑ Historic
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Island City is located in Sanders County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Island City
  • Mineral County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Thompson Falls, with the one closest to Thompson Falls listed first.
    • De Borgia
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
    • Haugan
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
    • Saltese
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Cabin City
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
      • Cabin City is located in Mineral County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cabin City
    • East Portal ‑ Historic
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
      • East Portal is located in Mineral County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for East Portal
    • Saint Regis
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
  • Shoshone County (ID)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Thompson Falls, with the one closest to Thompson Falls listed first.
    • Larson
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
      • Larson is located in Shoshone County (ID)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Larson
    • Mullan
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
      • Mullan is located in Shoshone County (ID)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mullan
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 691 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Mullan <1>
    • Burke ‑ Historic
      (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
      • Burke is located in Shoshone County (ID)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Burke
    • Murray
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
    • Frisco
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
      • Frisco is located in Shoshone County (ID)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Frisco
    • Carbon Center
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
      • Carbon Center is located in Shoshone County (ID)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Carbon Center
    • Woodland Park
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
      • Woodland Park is located in Shoshone County (ID)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Woodland Park
    • Delta
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
      • Delta is located in Shoshone County (ID)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Delta
    • Wallace
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
      • Wallace is located in Shoshone County (ID)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wallace
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 778 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Wallace <1>
    • Silverton
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)

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

Cemeteries Near Thompson Falls ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Thompson Falls.

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 Thompson Falls - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • Wild Rose Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
  • Fraternal Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fraternal Cemetery
    • The Fraternal Cemetery has also been known as:
    • IOOF Cemetery
  • VFW Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
  • Whitepine Trout Creek Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Saltese Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
  • De Borgia Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
  • Dominion Peak Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
  • St. Regis Cemetery
    (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
  • Lynch Cemetery
    (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
  • Continue List   (6 more) ...
    • Plains Cemetery
      (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
    • Murray Cemetery
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
    • United Cemetery
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
    • Miners Union Cemetery
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
    • Paradise Cemetery
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)

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 Thompson Falls in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Thompson Falls.

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

  • Belknap
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
    • Belknap is located in Sanders County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Belknap
  • Eddy
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
    • Eddy is located in Sanders County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eddy
  • Childs
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Childs is located in Sanders County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Childs
  • Saltese
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
  • De Borgia
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
  • Borax
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Borax is located in Mineral County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Borax
  • Trout Creek
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
  • Burke ‑ Historic
    (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
    • Burke is located in Shoshone County (ID)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Burke
  • Mullan
    (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
    • Mullan is located in Shoshone County (ID)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mullan
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 691 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Mullan <1>
  • Saint Regis
    (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
  • Plains
    (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
  • Murray
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
  • Continue List   (6 more) ...
    • Frisco
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
      • Frisco is located in Shoshone County (ID)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Frisco
    • Tuscor
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Tuscor is located in Sanders County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tuscor
    • Eagle
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
      • Eagle is located in Shoshone County (ID)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eagle

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Thompson Falls ...

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 40 newspapers that have been published in the area around Thompson Falls.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Thompson Falls. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Thompson Falls and those printed in the larger area surrounding Thompson Falls.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 28 miles [45.1 km]<4> of Thompson Falls.

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 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 Thompson Falls:

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 Thompson Falls, 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 things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Thompson Falls) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.