RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of North Dakota >> Rolette County >> Nanson >> 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 Nanson (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 Nanson. 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.

Nanson 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 Nanson. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Nanson:

  • Rolette County     (The home county of Nanson)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Nanson, with the one closest to Nanson listed first.
    • Rolette
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Mylo
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Agate
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
    • Shell Valley
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
      • Shell Valley is located in Rolette County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shell Valley
    • Belcourt
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
    • Rolla
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
      • 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>
    • Dunseith
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
    • San Haven
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
      • San Haven is located in Rolette County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for San Haven
    • East Dunseith
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
      • East Dunseith is located in Rolette County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for East Dunseith
    • Saint John
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
    • Kelvin
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
      • Kelvin is located in Rolette County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kelvin
  • Benson County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Nanson, with the one closest to Nanson listed first.
    • Pleasant Lake
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
      • Pleasant Lake is located in Benson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pleasant Lake
    • Knox
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
    • York
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Leeds
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Niles
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Niles is located in Benson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Niles
  • Bottineau County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Nanson, with the one closest to Nanson listed first.
    • Overly
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
      • Overly is located in Bottineau County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Overly
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 17 people
    • Willow City
      (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
    • Omemee ‑ Historic
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
      • Omemee is located in Bottineau County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Omemee
  • McHenry County
    • Berwick
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
      • Berwick is located in McHenry County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Berwick
  • Pierce County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Nanson, with the one closest to Nanson listed first.
    • Wolford
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Rugby
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Barton
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
      • Barton is located in Pierce County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Barton
    • Balta
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
  • Towner County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Nanson, with the one closest to Nanson listed first.
    • Perth
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Bisbee
      (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
    • Cando
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
    • Rocklake
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Maza
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Maza is located in Towner County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Maza

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

Cemeteries Near Nanson ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Nanson.

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

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

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

  • North Ox Creek Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
  • South Ox Creek Lutheran Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Rolette Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • 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<3> to the northeast of Rolette.
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #102349 <2>
  • Mylo Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
  • Westland Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
  • Pleasant Valley Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
  • Maryville Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
  • Zion Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
  • St. Edward Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
  • Lakeview Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Teubner Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
  • Knox Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
  • Continue List   (44 more) ...
    • Halling Cemetery
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
    • Emanuel Cemetery
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Little Flower Cemetery
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)

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

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

  • Pleasant Lake
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
    • Pleasant Lake is located in Benson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pleasant Lake
  • Knox
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
  • Rugby
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Perth
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
  • Barton
    (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
    • Barton is located in Pierce County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Barton
  • Bisbee
    (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
  • Belcourt
    (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
  • York
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
  • Rolla
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
    • 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>
  • Dunseith
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
  • Willow City
    (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
  • Berwick
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Berwick is located in McHenry County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Berwick
  • Continue List   (4 more) ...
    • Leeds
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Saint John
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
    • Cando
      (27 miles [43.5 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 Nanson. See our List of 1890's Communities around Nanson.

Newspapers Published in Nanson ...

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 58 newspapers that have been published in the area around Nanson.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Nanson, 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 Nanson.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we start 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 Nanson:

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 '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- Nanson) 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 Nanson, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.