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The Commemorative Quarter for North Dakota





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 Lignite (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 Lignite. 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 northwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors and hospitals were in the next county to the west. 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 west 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.

Lignite is located in Burke 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 Burke County: Mountrail, Renville, Ward & Williams.

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

  • Burke County     (The home county of Lignite)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Lignite, with the one closest to Lignite listed first.
    • Rival ‑ Historic
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Rival. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<1>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rival
      • Rival is located in Burke County
    • Flaxton
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Flaxton have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Flaxton
      • Flaxton is located in Burke County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 64 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Flaxton <3>
    • Portal
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
    • Columbus
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Columbus have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Columbus
      • Columbus is located in Burke County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 139 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Columbus <3>
    • Larson
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Larson have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Larson
      • Larson is located in Burke County
    • Bowbells
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Bowbells have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bowbells
      • Bowbells is located in Burke County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 338 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Bowbells <3>
    • Powers Lake
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
    • Battleview
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Battleview
      • Battleview is located in Burke County
  • Divide County
    • Noonan
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
  • Renville County
    • Norma
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Norma
      • Norma is located in Renville County
  • Ward County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Lignite, with the one closest to Lignite listed first.
    • Niobe
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Niobe
      • Niobe is located in Ward County
    • Kenmare
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Kenmare have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kenmare
      • Kenmare is located in Ward County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,026 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Kenmare <3>
  • Williams County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Lignite, with the one closest to Lignite listed first.
    • McGregor
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Hamlet
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hamlet
      • Hamlet is located in Williams County

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

Cemeteries Near Lignite ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Lignite.

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

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

  • St. Marys Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Marys Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Marys Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Swedish Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Swedish Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Swedish Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Norwegian Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
    • 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.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Flaxton Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Flaxton Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Flaxton Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • South Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
  • East Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the East Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the East Cemetery is located outside and to the east of Portal.
    • The East Cemetery has also been known as:
    • St. John the Baptist Catholic Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #101870 <4>
  • North Portal Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
  • Short Creek Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Columbus Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Columbus Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Columbus Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Little Butte Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Little Butte Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Little Butte Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Little Butte Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Little Butte Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Little Butte Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Zion Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
    • 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.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Continue List   (37 more) ...
    • Danish Cemetery
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Danish Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Danish Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • St. Olaf Cemetery
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Olaf Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Olaf Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Pleasant Prairie Cemetery
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Lignite ...

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 13 newspapers that have been published in the area around Lignite.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Lignite. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Lignite and those printed in the larger area surrounding Lignite.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 28 miles [45.1 km]<5> of Lignite.

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 Lignite:

Unfortunately, we don't know of a website for Lignite. 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>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.
<2>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.
<3>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<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>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Lignite) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Lignite. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 48.8770, Longitude: -102.5641       In this case, the coordinates for Lignite have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 28 Apr 2025