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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 West College Park (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 West College Park. 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 West College Park ...

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 West College Park: W. College Park

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 doctors and 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.

West College Park is located in Gallatin 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 Gallatin County: Fremont (ID), Broadwater, Jefferson, Madison, Meagher, Park, Park (WY) & Teton (WY).

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

  • Gallatin County     (The home county of West College Park)
    • The following are listed by their distance from West College Park, with the one closest to West College Park listed first.
    • Bozeman
      (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Catron
      (Less than 2 miles to the north)
      • Catron is located in Gallatin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Catron
    • Story
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
      • Story is located in Gallatin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Story
    • Four Corners
      (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
      • Four Corners is located in Gallatin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Four Corners
    • Wisner Crossing
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
      • Wisner Crossing is located in Gallatin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wisner Crossing
    • Chestnut
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
      • Chestnut is located in Gallatin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chestnut
    • Belgrade
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Gallatin Gateway
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Bridger
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
      • Bridger is located in Gallatin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bridger
    • Amsterdam - Churchill
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Amsterdam - Churchill is located in Gallatin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Amsterdam - Churchill
    • Churchill
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Churchill is located in Gallatin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Churchill
    • Amsterdam
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Arnold
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
      • Arnold is located in Gallatin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Arnold
  • Madison County
    • The following are listed by their distance from West College Park, with the one closest to West College Park listed first.
    • Red Bluff
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
      • Red Bluff is located in Madison County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Red Bluff
    • Big Sky Mountain Village
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Norris
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
  • Park County
    • The following are listed by their distance from West College Park, with the one closest to West College Park listed first.
    • Hoppers
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
      • Hoppers is located in Park County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hoppers
    • Livingston
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
    • Brisbin
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
      • Brisbin is located in Park County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brisbin
    • Clyde Park
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Emigrant
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Pine Creek
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
      • Pine Creek is located in Park County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pine Creek
    • Pray
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Wilsall
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Chico Hot Springs
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Chico Hot Springs is located in Park County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chico Hot Springs
    • Chico
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Chico is located in Park County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chico

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

Cemeteries Near West College Park ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of West College Park.

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 West College Park - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • Sunset Hills Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
  • Brondel Catholic Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
  • Holy Rosary Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
  • Sunset Memorial Park
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sunset Memorial Park
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Sunset Memorial Park is a large cemetery that is located outside and to the northwest of Bozeman.
    • The Sunset Memorial Park has also been known as:
    • Gallatin Valley Sunset Memorial Gardens
    • Sunset Memorial Gardens
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2132998 <2>
  • Walker Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
  • Gallatin Gateway Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
  • Timberline Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
  • Springhill Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
  • Hills Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
  • Little Holland Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
  • East Gallatin Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
  • Churchill Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Continue List   (32 more) ...
    • Courts Cemetery
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
    • Muir Cemetery
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
    • Vaters Cemetery
      (14 miles [22.5 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>

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

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

  • Bozeman
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
  • Story
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Story is located in Gallatin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Story
  • Chestnut
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
    • Chestnut is located in Gallatin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chestnut
  • Belgrade
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
  • West End
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
    • West End is located in Gallatin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West End
  • Springhill
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
    • Springhill is located in Gallatin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Springhill
  • Muir
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
    • Muir is located in Park County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Muir
  • Hoppers
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
    • Hoppers is located in Park County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hoppers
  • Manhattan
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
  • Gallop ‑ Historic
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
    • Gallop is located in Gallatin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gallop
  • Sedan
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Sedan is located in Gallatin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sedan
  • Logan
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Logan is located in Gallatin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Logan
  • Continue List   (11 more) ...
    • Brisbin
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
      • Brisbin is located in Park County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brisbin
    • Livingston
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
    • Chicory
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Chicory is located in Park County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chicory

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

Newspapers Published in West College Park ...

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 54 newspapers that have been published in the area around West College Park.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of West College Park, there are papers which were published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for West College Park.

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 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 West College Park:

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 West College Park, 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- West College Park) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.