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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 Darby (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 Darby. 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 southwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors and hospitals were in the next county to the west. 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 west 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.

Darby is located in Ramsey County.

To see how the shape of North Dakota's counties may have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Ramsey County: Benson, Cavalier, Nelson, Towner & Walsh.

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

  • Ramsey County     (The home county of Darby)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Darby, with the one closest to Darby listed first.
    • Grand Harbor
      (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
      • Grand Harbor is located in Ramsey County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grand Harbor
    • Devils Lake
      (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Penn
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Webster
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Churchs Ferry
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Garske
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
      • Garske is located in Ramsey County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Garske
    • Crary
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
    • Doyon
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
      • Doyon is located in Ramsey County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Doyon
    • Starkweather
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
    • Bartlett
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
      • Bartlett is located in Ramsey County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bartlett
    • Saint Joe
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
      • Saint Joe is located in Ramsey County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Saint Joe
    • Brocket
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
  • Benson County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Darby, with the one closest to Darby listed first.
    • Fort Totten
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
    • Saint Michael
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
    • Minnewaukan
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Brinsmade
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
    • Tokio
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Niles
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
      • Niles is located in Benson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Niles
    • Oberon
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Leeds
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
    • Warwick
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
    • Maddock
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
    • York
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
  • Eddy County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Darby, with the one closest to Darby listed first.
    • Sheyenne
      (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
    • Hamar
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Hamar is located in Eddy County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hamar
  • Nelson County
    • Lakota
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
  • Towner County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Darby, with the one closest to Darby listed first.
    • Maza
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
      • Maza is located in Towner County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Maza
    • Cando
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)

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

Cemeteries Near Darby ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Darby.

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 Darby - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • Grand Harbor Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
  • G A R Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
  • St. Paul Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
  • Webster Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
  • Presbyterian Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Christian Church Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
  • Zion Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Almlie Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
  • Minnewaukan Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
  • St. Peter Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
  • Free Church Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
  • Crary Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Continue List   (37 more) ...
    • Lebanon Cemetery
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
    • Brinsmade Cemetery
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
    • Hillside Cemetery
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)

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.<4>

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

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

  • Grand Harbor
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
    • Grand Harbor is located in Ramsey County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grand Harbor
  • Devils Lake
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
  • Penn
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Fort Totten
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
  • Churchs Ferry
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
  • Minnewaukan
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Lallie
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Lallie is located in Benson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lallie
  • Crary
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
  • Brinsmade
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
  • Oberon
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
  • Starkweather
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
  • Sheyenne
    (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
  • Continue List   (5 more) ...
    • Leeds
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
    • Bartlett
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
      • Bartlett is located in Ramsey County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bartlett
    • Cando
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)

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

Newspapers Published in Darby ...

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 72 newspapers that have been published in the area around Darby.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Darby, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<2>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Darby.

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 helpful 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 Darby:

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>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Darby) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<3>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.
<4>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 Darby, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.