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 Willard (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 Willard. 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 southeast 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 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.

Willard is located in Fallon 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 Fallon County: Carter, Custer, Prairie, Wibaux, Bowman (ND), Golden Valley (ND), Slope (ND) & Harding (SD).

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

• Fallon County     (The home county of Willard)
  • The following are listed by their distance from Willard, with the one closest to Willard listed first.
  • Baker
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Baker have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Baker
    • Baker is located in Fallon County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,897 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Baker <2>
  • Plevna
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Plevna have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Plevna
    • Plevna is located in Fallon County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 141 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Plevna <2>
  • Westmore
    (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Westmore have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Westmore
    • Westmore is located in Fallon County
• Carter County
  • Ekalaka
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Ekalaka have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ekalaka
    • Ekalaka is located in Carter County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 367 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Ekalaka <2>
• Custer County
  • Ismay
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ismay
    • Ismay is located in Custer County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 19 people
    • Former name for Ismay:
    • Joe
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Ismay <2>
• Slope County (ND)
  • Marmarth
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Marmarth have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Marmarth
    • Marmarth is located in Slope County (ND)
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 135 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Marmarth <2>

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

Newspapers Published in Willard ...

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 12 newspapers that have been published in the area around Willard.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Willard, there are papers which were published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Willard.

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 either 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 Willard:

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

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

Cemeteries Near Willard ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Willard.

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

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

• St. John The Evangelist Cemetery
  (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
  • The St. John The Evangelist Cemetery has also been known as:
  • St. John Cemetery
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. John The Evangelist Cemetery
• Lame Jones Cemetery
  (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Lame Jones Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Lame Jones Cemetery
• Bonnievale Cemetery
  (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Bonnievale Cemetery
  • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #20776 <4>
• Askin Family Cemetery
  (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Askin Family Cemetery
• St. Anthony Cemetery
  (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Anthony Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Anthony Cemetery
• Fertile Prairie Cemetery
  (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Fertile Prairie Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Fertile Prairie Cemetery
• Peace Lutheran Cemetery
  (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Peace Lutheran Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Peace Lutheran Cemetery
• Community Union Cemetery
  (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Community Union Cemetery
• IOOF Cemetery
  (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the IOOF Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the IOOF Cemetery
• Riverside Cemetery
  (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Riverside Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Riverside Cemetery
• Westmore Cemetery
  (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Westmore Cemetery
• Russell Cemetery
  (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Russell Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Russell Cemetery
• Ismay Cemetery
  (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Ismay Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Ismay Cemetery

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

Off-the-Road Links ...

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

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