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 Yellowstone (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 Yellowstone. 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 Yellowstone ...

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 West Yellowstone: W. Yellowstone

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 southeast 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 south.

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

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

• Fremont County (ID)
  • The following are listed by their distance from West Yellowstone, with the one closest to West Yellowstone listed first.
  • Island Park
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Island Park have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Island Park
    • Island Park is located in Fremont County (ID)
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 260 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Island Park <2>
  • Macks Inn
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Macks Inn
    • Macks Inn is located in Fremont County (ID)
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Macks Inn <2>
  • Box Canyon
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Box Canyon
    • Box Canyon is located in Fremont County (ID)
• Park County (WY)
  • The following are listed by their distance from West Yellowstone, with the one closest to West Yellowstone listed first.
  • Mammoth
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mammoth
    • Mammoth is located in Park County (WY)
  • Canyon Village
    (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Canyon Village have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Canyon Village
    • Canyon Village is located in Park County (WY)

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

Newspapers Published in West Yellowstone ...

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 West Yellowstone.

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 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 West Yellowstone:

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

• Genealogy information for nearby counties
  • Fremont County
    • Jump to Cyndi's List
    • Jump to Family Search
    • Jump to Genealogy Trails
  • Park 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 Gallatin County
  • FamilySearch.org: Cemeteries of Montana
  • Find-A-Grave: Home Page
  • Interment.net
  • Cemeteries of Montana

Cemeteries Near West Yellowstone ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of West Yellowstone.

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 West Yellowstone covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

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

• Fir Ridge Cemetery
  (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Fir Ridge Cemetery
• Targhee Cemetery
  (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Targhee Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Targhee Cemetery
• Mattie Culver Gravesite
  (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Mattie Culver Gravesite
  • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2268019 <3>
• Ft. Yellowstone Army Cemetery
  (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Ft. Yellowstone Army Cemetery
  • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2130877 <3>
• Mammoth Civilian Cemetery
  (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for the Mammoth Civilian Cemetery. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<4>
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Mammoth Civilian Cemetery
  • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2462986 <3>

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

Off-the-Road Links ...

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

The official website for Gallatin County: www.co.gallatin.mt.us/

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