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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 Hesnault (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 Hesnault. 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 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 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.

Hesnault is located in Ward 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 Ward County: Burke, McHenry, McLean, Mountrail & Renville.

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

  • Ward County     (The home county of Hesnault)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Hesnault, with the one closest to Hesnault listed first.
    • Ryder
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Makoti
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Douglas
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
    • Des Lacs
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
    • Burlington
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
    • Lonetree
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
    • Minot
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Berthold
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Foxholm
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
      • Foxholm is located in Ward County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Foxholm
    • Sawyer
      (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
    • Surrey
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
    • Ruthville
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Ruthville is located in Ward County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ruthville
    • Carpio
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
  • McHenry County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Hesnault, with the one closest to Hesnault listed first.
    • Genoa
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
      • Genoa is located in McHenry County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Genoa
    • Velva
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
      • Velva is located in McHenry County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Velva
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,185 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Velva <1>
  • McLean County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Hesnault, with the one closest to Hesnault listed first.
    • Max
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
      • Max is located in McLean County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Max
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 348 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Max <1>
    • Roseglen
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Benedict
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Garrison
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
    • White Shield
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
      • White Shield is located in McLean County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for White Shield
  • Mountrail County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Hesnault, with the one closest to Hesnault listed first.
    • Plaza
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
      • Plaza is located in Mountrail County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Plaza
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 211 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Plaza <1>
    • Parshall
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)

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

Cemeteries Near Hesnault ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Hesnault.

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

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

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

  • Helland Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
  • Ryder Rosehill Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ryder Rosehill Cemetery
    • The Ryder Rosehill Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Rosehill Cemetery
  • Township Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
  • Spring Lake Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Saron Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
  • Township Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
  • Des Lacs Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
  • St. Paul's Lutheran Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
  • Center Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
  • Rosehill Memorial Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rosehill Memorial Cemetery
    • The Rosehill Memorial Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Rosehill Cemetery
  • Hebrew Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
  • East Community Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
  • Continue List   (29 more) ...
    • Hiddenwood Cemetery
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
    • First Baptist Cemetery
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for First Baptist Cemetery
      • The First Baptist Cemetery has also been known as:
      • First Baptist Russian Cemetery
      • Max Baptist Cemetery
      • Max Cemetery
      • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2205159 <2>
    • First Lutheran Church Cemetery
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for First Lutheran Church Cemetery
      • To give a relative sense of its location, the First Lutheran Church Cemetery is located in Minot.
      • The First Lutheran Church Cemetery has also been known as:
      • Hauge Cemetery
      • Synod Cemetery
      • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2340915 <2>

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

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

  • Des Lacs
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
  • Burlington
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
  • Minot
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
  • Logan
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
    • Logan is located in Ward County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Logan
  • Berthold
    (20 miles [32.2 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 Hesnault. See our List of 1890's Communities around Hesnault.

Newspapers Published in Hesnault ...

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 62 newspapers that have been published in the area around Hesnault.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Hesnault, there are papers which were published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Hesnault.

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 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 Hesnault:

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>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.
<3>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- Hesnault) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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 Hesnault, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.