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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 New Salem (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 New Salem. 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 hospitals and doctors 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.

New Salem is located in Morton 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 Morton County: Burleigh, Emmons, Grant, Mercer, Oliver, Sioux & Stark.

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

  • Morton County     (The home county of New Salem)
    • The following are listed by their distance from New Salem, with the one closest to New Salem listed first.
    • Sims
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Sims is located in Morton County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sims
    • Almont
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Bluegrass ‑ Historic
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
      • Bluegrass is located in Morton County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bluegrass
    • Sweet Briar
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
      • Sweet Briar is located in Morton County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sweet Briar
    • Lyons
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
    • Glen Ullin
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
    • Mandan
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
    • On-a-Slant Village ‑ Historic
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
      • On-a-Slant Village is located in Morton County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for On-a-Slant Village
    • Twin City Estates
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
      • Twin City Estates is located in Morton County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Twin City Estates
    • Flasher
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
    • Saint Anthony
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Hebron
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
  • Burleigh County
    • The following are listed by their distance from New Salem, with the one closest to New Salem listed first.
    • Double Ditch Indian Village
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
    • Bismarck
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
  • Grant County
    • The following are listed by their distance from New Salem, with the one closest to New Salem listed first.
    • Johnson Ford ‑ Historic
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
      • Johnson Ford is located in Grant County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Johnson Ford
    • Lark
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
      • Lark is located in Grant County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lark
    • Carson
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
  • Oliver County
    • The following are listed by their distance from New Salem, with the one closest to New Salem listed first.
    • Hannover
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
      • Hannover is located in Oliver County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hannover
    • Center
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
    • Sanger
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
      • Sanger is located in Oliver County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sanger

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

Cemeteries Near New Salem ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of New Salem.

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 New Salem - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • Graceland Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
  • English Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Sims Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Almont Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
  • Zion Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Bremen Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Churchtown Lutheran Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
  • Bluegrass Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Rosebud Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
  • St. Markus Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
  • Otter Creek Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
  • Moos Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
  • Continue List   (46 more) ...
    • Buchmann Cemetery
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Hannover Cemetery
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
    • Heart River Cemetery
      (18 miles [29 km] to the east)

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>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that New Salem had a population of 245 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, New Salem had a population of 1,006 people.

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

  • Sims
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Sims is located in Morton County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sims
  • Judson
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Judson is located in Morton County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Judson
  • Almont
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Bluegrass ‑ Historic
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Bluegrass is located in Morton County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bluegrass
  • Sweet Briar
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
    • Sweet Briar is located in Morton County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sweet Briar
  • Hannover
    (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
    • Hannover is located in Oliver County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hannover
  • Glen Ullin
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
  • Mandan
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
  • Wogansport
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Wogansport is located in Burleigh County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wogansport
  • Hebron
    (29 miles [46.7 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 New Salem. See our List of 1890's Communities around New Salem.

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of New Salem ...

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 67 newspapers that have been published in the area around New Salem.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of New Salem. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of New Salem and those printed in the larger area surrounding New Salem.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<3> of New Salem.

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 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 New Salem:

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 from Point A (ie- New Salem) 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 New Salem, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.