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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 Drake (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 Drake. 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 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.

Drake is located in McHenry County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of McHenry County: Bottineau, McLean, Pierce, Renville, Sheridan & Ward.

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

  • McHenry County     (The home county of Drake)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Drake, with the one closest to Drake listed first.
    • Guthrie
      (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Guthrie
      • Guthrie is located in McHenry County
    • Anamoose
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Anamoose have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Anamoose
      • Anamoose is located in McHenry County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 242 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Anamoose <2>
    • Funston
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Funston
      • Funston is located in McHenry County
    • Kief
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Balfour
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Balfour have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Balfour
      • Balfour is located in McHenry County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 27 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Balfour <2>
    • Karlsruhe
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Karlsruhe have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Karlsruhe
      • Karlsruhe is located in McHenry County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 85 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Karlsruhe <2>
    • Bergen
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Bergen have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bergen
      • Bergen is located in McHenry County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 7 people
    • Kongsberg
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Kongsberg. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kongsberg
      • Kongsberg is located in McHenry County
    • Voltaire
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Voltaire have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Voltaire
      • Voltaire is located in McHenry County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 44 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Voltaire <2>
    • Velva
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Velva have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Velva
      • Velva is located in McHenry County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,185 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Velva <2>
    • Towner
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
    • Berwick
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Berwick. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Berwick
      • Berwick is located in McHenry County
  • Benson County
    • Esmond
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Esmond have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Esmond
      • Esmond is located in Benson County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 94 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Esmond <2>
  • McLean County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Drake, with the one closest to Drake listed first.
    • Butte
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Butte have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Butte
      • Butte is located in McLean County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 76 people
    • Ruso
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
  • Pierce County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Drake, with the one closest to Drake listed first.
    • Orrin
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Selz
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Selz
      • Selz is located in Pierce County
    • Balta
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Balta have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Balta
      • Balta is located in Pierce County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 58 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Balta <2>
  • Sheridan County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Drake, with the one closest to Drake listed first.
    • Martin
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Martin have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Martin
      • Martin is located in Sheridan County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 67 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Martin <2>
    • McClusky
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
  • Wells County
    • Harvey
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Harvey have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harvey
      • Harvey is located in Wells County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,587 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Harvey <2>

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

Cemeteries Near Drake ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Drake.

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

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

  • Zion Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Zion Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Zion Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Sons of Herman Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Sons of Herman Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Sons of Herman Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • St. Martins Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Martins Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Martins Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Union Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Union Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Union Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Rosenfield Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Rosenfield Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Rosenfield Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • St. Francis Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Francis Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Francis Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • St. Johns Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Johns Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Johns Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Kief Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Kief Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Kief Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Stenso Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Stenso Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Stenso Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Berlin Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Berlin Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Berlin Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Martin United Methodist Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Martin United Methodist Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Martin United Methodist Cemetery is located less than 2 miles<4> to the south of Martin.
    • The Martin United Methodist Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Martin Evangelical United Brethern Cemetery
    • Martin Methodist Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2402014 <5>
  • Norwegian Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Norwegian Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Norwegian Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Continue List   (43 more) ...
    • Reform Cemetery
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
    • St. Mathis Cemetery
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Mathis Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Mathis Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Skogmo Cemetery
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Skogmo Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Skogmo Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.

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.<6>

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

  • Denbigh
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Denbigh have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Denbigh
    • Denbigh is located in McHenry County

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Drake ...

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 38 newspapers that have been published in the area around Drake.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Drake. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Drake and those printed in the larger area surrounding Drake.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<4> of Drake.

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 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 Drake:

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

The official website for State of North Dakota: https://www.nd.gov/

Footnotes ...

<1>The location has been supplied by the Geographic Names Information System - which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While these values should be definitive, we found that accuracy can vary and you should double-check the location if accuracy is required.
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<3>An 'estimated' location is one where we have been given GPS coordinates, but are unable to verify the accuracy of those coordinates. That said, we have some confidence that we have placed the marker near the actual location. A typical reason for being unable to verify a location is that it might be on private property or maybe historic and gone without an obvious trace.
<4>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 drawn from Point A (ie- Drake) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Drake. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 47.9219, Longitude: -100.3762       In this case, the coordinates for Drake have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>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.
<6>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 Drake, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 28 Apr 2025