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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 Elgin (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 Elgin. 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 northeast 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 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.

Elgin is located in Grant 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 Grant County: Adams, Hettinger, Morton, Sioux & Stark.

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

  • Grant County     (The home county of Elgin)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Elgin, with the one closest to Elgin listed first.
    • New Leipzig
      (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for New Leipzig have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for New Leipzig
      • New Leipzig is located in Grant County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 200 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for New Leipzig <2>
    • Leith
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Leith have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Leith
      • Leith is located in Grant County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 16 people
    • Carson
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Carson have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Carson
      • Carson is located in Grant County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 260 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Carson <2>
    • Johnson Ford ‑ Historic
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Johnson Ford have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Johnson Ford
      • Johnson Ford is located in Grant County
    • Lark
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Lark have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lark
      • Lark is located in Grant County
    • Raleigh
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
    • Saint Gertrude
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Saint Gertrude
      • Saint Gertrude is located in Grant County
  • Hettinger County
    • Mott
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Mott have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mott
      • Mott is located in Hettinger County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 714 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Mott <2>
  • Morton County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Elgin, with the one closest to Elgin listed first.
    • Almont
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Glen Ullin
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
    • Flasher
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Flasher have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Flasher
      • Flasher is located in Morton County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 203 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Flasher <2>
    • Sims
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Sims have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sims
      • Sims is located in Morton County

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Elgin ...

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 17 newspapers that have been published in the area around Elgin.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Elgin. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Elgin and those printed in the larger area surrounding Elgin.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<3> of Elgin.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we like to start with 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 Elgin:

Cemeteries Near Elgin ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Elgin.

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

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

  • American Lutheran Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
  • Assembly of God Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
  • Bethesda United Methodist Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
  • Immanuel Lutheran Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
  • St. Johns Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
  • St. Johns Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • 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.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Johns Cemetery
  • Immanuel Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Finnish Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Finnish Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Finnish Cemetery
  • Congregation Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Congregation Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Congregation Cemetery
  • Prairie View Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Prairie View Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Prairie View Cemetery
  • Peace Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Peace Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Peace Cemetery
  • Odessa Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Odessa Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Odessa Cemetery
  • Continue List   (37 more) ...
    • Philadelphia Cemetery
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Philadelphia Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Philadelphia Cemetery
    • Ebenezer Cemetery
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Ebenezer Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Ebenezer Cemetery
    • Fleak Cemetery
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Fleak Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Fleak Cemetery

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.<5>

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

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

  • Almont
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Glen Ullin
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)

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

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

The official website for State of North Dakota: 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>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a '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- Elgin) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Elgin. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 46.4017, Longitude: -101.8471       In this case, the coordinates for Elgin have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<4>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.
<5>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 Elgin, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024