RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of North Dakota >> Rolette County >> Fonda >> Genealogy HelperIndex...

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 Fonda (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 Fonda. 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.

Fonda is located in Rolette 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 Rolette County: Bottineau, Pierce & Towner.

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

  • Rolette County     (The home county of Fonda)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Fonda, with the one closest to Fonda listed first.
    • Rolette
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
    • Dunseith
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
    • San Haven
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
      • San Haven is located in Rolette County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for San Haven
    • Shell Valley
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Shell Valley is located in Rolette County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shell Valley
    • East Dunseith
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
      • East Dunseith is located in Rolette County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for East Dunseith
    • Belcourt
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Mylo
      (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
    • Kelvin
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
      • Kelvin is located in Rolette County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kelvin
    • Rolla
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
      • Rolla is located in Rolette County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rolla
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,273 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Rolla <1>
    • Saint John
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
    • Agate
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
  • Benson County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Fonda, with the one closest to Fonda listed first.
    • Pleasant Lake
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
      • Pleasant Lake is located in Benson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pleasant Lake
    • Knox
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Bottineau County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Fonda, with the one closest to Fonda listed first.
    • Overly
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
      • Overly is located in Bottineau County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Overly
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 17 people
    • Willow City
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
    • Omemee ‑ Historic
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
      • Omemee is located in Bottineau County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Omemee
    • Gardena
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
      • Gardena is located in Bottineau County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gardena
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 28 people
    • Bottineau
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
    • White ‑ Historic
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
      • White is located in Bottineau County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for White
  • McHenry County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Fonda, with the one closest to Fonda listed first.
    • Berwick
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
      • Berwick is located in McHenry County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Berwick
    • Towner
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Bantry
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Pierce County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Fonda, with the one closest to Fonda listed first.
    • Barton
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
      • Barton is located in Pierce County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Barton
    • Wolford
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
    • Rugby
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
  • Towner County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Fonda, with the one closest to Fonda listed first.
    • Perth
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
    • Bisbee
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)

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

Cemeteries Near Fonda ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Fonda.

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

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

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

  • St. Edward Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
  • Willow Creek Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
  • Little Fargo Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
  • Rolette Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rolette Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Rolette Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located less than 2 miles<2> to the northeast of Rolette.
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #102349 <3>
  • Westland Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
  • Lakeview Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
  • Zion Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
  • Riverside Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
  • St. Louis Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
  • North Ox Creek Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
  • Tasco Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
  • St. Sylvan Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
  • Continue List   (39 more) ...

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 Fonda in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Fonda.

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

  • Dunseith
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
  • Willow City
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
  • Barton
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Barton is located in Pierce County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Barton
  • Omemee ‑ Historic
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
    • Omemee is located in Bottineau County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Omemee
  • Belcourt
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
  • Rugby
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
  • Rolla
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Rolla is located in Rolette County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rolla
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,273 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Rolla <1>
  • Bottineau
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
  • Berwick
    (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
    • Berwick is located in McHenry County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Berwick
  • Pleasant Lake
    (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
    • Pleasant Lake is located in Benson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pleasant Lake
  • Saint John
    (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
  • Perth
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
  • Knox
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Bisbee
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)

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

Newspapers Published in Fonda ...

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 55 newspapers that have been published in the area around Fonda.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Fonda, there are papers which were published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<2>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Fonda.

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 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 Fonda:

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' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Fonda) 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 Fonda, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.