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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 Southam (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 Southam. 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 and hospitals 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.

Southam is located in Ramsey 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 Ramsey County: Benson, Cavalier, Nelson, Towner & Walsh.

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

  • Ramsey County     (The home county of Southam)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Southam, with the one closest to Southam listed first.
    • Doyon
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
      • Doyon is located in Ramsey County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Doyon
    • Crary
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Brocket
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Bartlett
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Bartlett is located in Ramsey County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bartlett
    • Lawton
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Devils Lake
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
    • Webster
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Edmore
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
    • Garske
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
      • Garske is located in Ramsey County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Garske
    • Grand Harbor
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
      • Grand Harbor is located in Ramsey County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grand Harbor
    • Starkweather
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Penn
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
  • Benson County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Southam, with the one closest to Southam listed first.
    • Saint Michael
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
    • Tokio
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Warwick
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
    • Fort Totten
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
  • Cavalier County
    • Nekoma
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
  • Eddy County
    • Hamar
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
      • Hamar is located in Eddy County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hamar
  • Nelson County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Southam, with the one closest to Southam listed first.
    • Lakota
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Mapes
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
      • Mapes is located in Nelson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mapes
    • Whitman
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
      • Whitman is located in Nelson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Whitman
    • Michigan City
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
      • Michigan City is located in Nelson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Michigan City
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 260 people
    • Michigan
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Harrisburg ‑ Historic
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
      • Harrisburg is located in Nelson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harrisburg
    • Tolna
      (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
    • Petersburg
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
    • Pekin
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Walsh County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Southam, with the one closest to Southam listed first.
    • Praha ‑ Historic
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
      • Praha is located in Walsh County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Praha
    • Fairdale
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Adams
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Lankin
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)

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

Cemeteries Near Southam ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Southam.

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

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

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

  • Hope Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
  • Fox Lake Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
  • Doyon Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
  • Crary Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Bartlett Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Hoff Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
  • Kalhagen Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
  • St. Joseph Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
  • Vaage Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
  • Lawton Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
  • G A R Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
  • Odessa Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
  • Continue List   (38 more) ...
    • Finnish Cemetery
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
    • Edmore Cemetery
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
    • Sobak Cemetery
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)

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.<3>

While we didn't find Southam in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Southam.

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

  • Crary
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
  • Bartlett
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Bartlett is located in Ramsey County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bartlett
  • Lakota
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Devils Lake
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
  • Mapes
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Mapes is located in Nelson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mapes
  • Grand Harbor
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
    • Grand Harbor is located in Ramsey County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grand Harbor
  • Michigan City
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Michigan City is located in Nelson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Michigan City
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 260 people
  • Michigan
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
  • Harrisburg ‑ Historic
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Harrisburg is located in Nelson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harrisburg
  • Continue List   (6 more) ...
    • Fort Totten
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
    • Starkweather
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Penn
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
    • Petersburg
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
    • Praha ‑ Historic
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
      • Praha is located in Walsh County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Praha
    • Adams
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)

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

Newspapers Published in Southam ...

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 59 newspapers that have been published in the area around Southam.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Southam, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Southam.

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 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 Southam:

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>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 Southam, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<4>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 drawn from Point A (ie- Southam) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.