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Our Genealogy Helper

Introduction ...

Although we found mention of Harding during our research, we have little information about it.<1> Given the context of how Harding was mentioned, we believe that it was a community rather than a locale or some type of landmark. We have done a cursory search and if it was a community, we haven't been able to find any evidence that it still exists..

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 Harding (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 Harding. 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 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.

Harding is located in McKenzie 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 McKenzie County: Richland (MT), Wibaux (MT), Billings, Dunn, Golden Valley, Mountrail & Williams.

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

  • McKenzie County     (The home county of Harding)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Harding, with the one closest to Harding listed first.
    • Cartwright
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Dore
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dore
      • Dore is located in McKenzie County
    • Charbonneau
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Charbonneau
      • Charbonneau is located in McKenzie County
    • Alexander
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
    • Rawson
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Rawson have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rawson
      • Rawson is located in McKenzie County
    • Arnegard
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Arnegard have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Arnegard
      • Arnegard is located in McKenzie County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 179 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Arnegard <2>
  • Williams County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Harding, with the one closest to Harding listed first.
    • Trenton
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Williston
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Richland County (MT)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Harding, with the one closest to Harding listed first.
    • Fairview
      (Less than 2 miles to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Fairview have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fairview
      • Fairview is located in Richland County (MT)
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 882 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Fairview <2>
    • Sidney
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sidney
      • Sidney is located in Richland County (MT)
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 6,297 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Sidney <2>
    • Piche
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Piche
      • Piche is located in Richland County (MT)
    • Crane
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Fox Lake
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fox Lake
      • Fox Lake is located in Richland County (MT)
    • Lambert
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
  • Roosevelt County (MT)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Harding, with the one closest to Harding listed first.
    • Bainville
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Bainville have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bainville
      • Bainville is located in Roosevelt County (MT)
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 317 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Bainville <2>
    • Culbertson
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)

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

Newspapers Published in Harding ...

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 37 newspapers that have been published in the area around Harding.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Harding, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Harding.

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 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 Harding:

Cemeteries Near Harding ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Harding.

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

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

  • Fairview Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Fairview Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Fairview Cemetery
  • Pioneer Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Pioneer Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Pioneer Cemetery
  • Bethel Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Bethel Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Bethel Cemetery
  • Yellowstone Point Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Yellowstone Point Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Yellowstone Point Cemetery
  • Nameless Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Nameless Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Nameless Cemetery
  • Fourmile Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Fourmile Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Fourmile Cemetery
  • Sidney Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
  • Buford Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
  • Mondak Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Mondak Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Mondak Cemetery
  • Pioneer Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Pioneer Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Pioneer Cemetery
  • Nohly Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Charbonneau Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
  • Continue List   (29 more) ...
    • Brorson Cemetery
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Richland Memorial Park
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Highland Cemetery
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Highland Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Highland 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.<6>

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

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

  • Buford
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Buford have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Buford
    • Buford is located in Williams County
  • Trenton
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
  • Williston
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)

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

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

Footnotes ...

<1>If we encounter the name of what might be a community, our methodology is to add that name to our Gazetteer. For example, we might find a sentence like "He went north past Harding and then turned east". While Harding could be some kind of landmark, we think that it's more likely to be a community. We've added Harding as a placeholder with the hope that we'll be able to add more information in the future.

Just as a reminder: Our definition of a community is rather broad and includes those places (or areas) where several families lived and had a name which identified that place. For example, you might hear somebody say that they are going over to Miller Creek to see Pete ... Miller Creek is just a gas station and a couple of homes at the crossroads. While it might not be on the map, everybody in the area knows it by that name.

Places of interest include buildings at a crossroad, several families clustered in a hollow or maybe the location of a way station. It also includes places like mines, lumber camps, ferry crossings, etc. The community might still exist, is now gone or only existed for just a short period of time.

Also keep in mind that Harding could have been on the original document by mistake, misspelled, the original/alternate name of a community that we've listed elsewhere or was placed in the wrong county. Sometimes a post office or train station would have a different name than the community where it's located, so two names might be referring to the same community - we're working to straighten it all out.

Just in case there has been confusion between counties, we found that there are two North Dakota communities named Harding: This one is located in McKenzie County and the other is located in Ramsey County. For more information, see our Tidbits & Trivia Page for Harding.
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<3>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.
<4>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Harding) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Harding. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 47.8534, Longitude: -104.0148    
<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 Harding, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024