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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 Lunds Valley (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 Lunds Valley. 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.

Name Variations for Lunds Valley ...

When searching records, keep in mind that names and their spelling can change over time. Our sources include documents like maps, railroad schedules, Travel, Express and Shipping Guides. Many of these documents date from the 1800's and it's common to find spelling differences.

Although we can't give a definitive list, hopefully the following will give you a feel for the variations that might occur.

  • A typical abbreviation for Lunds Valley: Lunds Vly. (or less commonly used: Lunds Vally. or Lunds Vlly.)
  • While the name of this community is Lunds Valley, be aware that it's the common practice of mapmakers to remove the apostrophe from possessive names<1>. So Lunds Valley may originally have been Lund's Valley.

    Sometimes the trailing 's' might be dropped altogether, in which case Lunds Valley might be written as Lund Valley.

If you have information about these names (such as the reason for the change, date of change, the origin of the name), please Contact Us.

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 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.

Lunds Valley is located in Mountrail 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 Mountrail County: Burke, Dunn, McKenzie, McLean, Ward & Williams.

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

  • Mountrail County     (The home county of Lunds Valley)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Lunds Valley, with the one closest to Lunds Valley listed first.
    • Ross
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
      • Ross is located in Mountrail County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ross
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 116 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Ross <2>
    • White Earth
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Stanley
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Palermo
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
    • Coulee
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
      • Coulee is located in Mountrail County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Coulee
    • Blaisdell
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Belden
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
      • Belden is located in Mountrail County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Belden
  • Burke County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Lunds Valley, with the one closest to Lunds Valley listed first.
    • Powers Lake
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Battleview
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Battleview is located in Burke County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Battleview
    • Bowbells
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Lignite
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
    • Flaxton
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
    • Rival ‑ Historic
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
      • Rival is located in Burke County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rival
    • Columbus
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
    • Larson
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Larson is located in Burke County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Larson
  • Renville County
    • Norma
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
      • Norma is located in Renville County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Norma
  • Ward County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Lunds Valley, with the one closest to Lunds Valley listed first.
    • Niobe
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
      • Niobe is located in Ward County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Niobe
    • Kenmare
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Donnybrook
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
  • Williams County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Lunds Valley, with the one closest to Lunds Valley listed first.
    • McGregor
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
    • Tioga
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
      • Tioga is located in Williams County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tioga
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,391 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Tioga <2>
    • Hamlet
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
      • Hamlet is located in Williams County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hamlet
    • Ray
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
      • Ray is located in Williams County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ray
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 943 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Ray <2>
    • Wildrose
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)

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

Cemeteries Near Lunds Valley ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Lunds Valley.

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 Lunds Valley - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • Lunds Valley Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
  • St. James Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Bethel Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Bethel Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
  • St. James Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
  • Elbow Lake Bethel Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
  • Vanville Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Vanville Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Bethel Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Manitou Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
  • Rosehill Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
  • White Earth Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Continue List   (46 more) ...
    • Moslem Cemetery
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
    • Old Bethel Cemetery
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Beauty Valley Cemetery
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)

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

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

  • Manitou
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
    • Manitou is located in Mountrail County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Manitou
  • White Earth
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Ross
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
    • Ross is located in Mountrail County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ross
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 116 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Ross <2>
  • Stanley
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)

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

Newspapers Published in Lunds Valley ...

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 26 newspapers that have been published in the area around Lunds Valley.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Lunds Valley, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Lunds Valley.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we begin with the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These websites either 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 Lunds Valley:

Footnotes ...

<1>It's generally believed that possessive apostrophes are removed to prevent confusion on maps where the apostrophe may be confused with a cartographic symbol. While this is generally true, it's not uncommon to find possessive apostrophes in administrative names (such as towns or counties).
<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 '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- Lunds Valley) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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 Lunds Valley, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.