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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 Thorne (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 Thorne. 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 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.

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

  • Rolette County     (The home county of Thorne)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Thorne, with the one closest to Thorne listed first.
    • Shell Valley
      (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
      • Shell Valley is located in Rolette County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shell Valley
    • Rolette
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Dunseith
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • San Haven
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
      • San Haven is located in Rolette County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for San Haven
    • East Dunseith
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
      • East Dunseith is located in Rolette County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for East Dunseith
    • Belcourt
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Kelvin
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
      • Kelvin is located in Rolette County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kelvin
    • Mylo
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Rolla
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
      • 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>
    • Saint John
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Agate
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
  • Benson County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Thorne, with the one closest to Thorne listed first.
    • Pleasant Lake
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
      • Pleasant Lake is located in Benson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pleasant Lake
    • Knox
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Bottineau County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Thorne, with the one closest to Thorne listed first.
    • Overly
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
      • Overly is located in Bottineau County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Overly
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 17 people
    • Willow City
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
    • Omemee ‑ Historic
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
      • Omemee is located in Bottineau County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Omemee
    • Bottineau
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
    • Gardena
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
      • Gardena is located in Bottineau County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gardena
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 28 people
  • McHenry County
    • Berwick
      (29 miles [46.7 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 Thorne, with the one closest to Thorne listed first.
    • Wolford
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Barton
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
      • Barton is located in Pierce County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Barton
    • Rugby
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
  • Towner County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Thorne, with the one closest to Thorne listed first.
    • Perth
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
    • Bisbee
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
    • Hansboro
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)

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

Cemeteries Near Thorne ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Thorne.

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

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

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

  • St. Edward Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
  • Lakeview Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
  • Westland Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
  • Rolette Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • 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<2> to the northeast of Rolette.
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #102349 <3>
  • Riverside Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
  • St. Louis Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Maryville Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
  • White Stone Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
  • St. Anns Addition Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
  • St. Mary's Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
  • St. Sylvan Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Willow Creek Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
  • Continue List   (36 more) ...
    • North Ox Creek Cemetery
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
    • An-qui-ni-gay Indian Burial Ground
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
    • St. Paul Cemetery
      (12 miles [19.3 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.<4>

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

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

  • Dunseith
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Belcourt
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Rolla
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
    • 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>
  • Saint John
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
  • Willow City
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
  • Barton
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Barton is located in Pierce County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Barton
  • Omemee ‑ Historic
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
    • Omemee is located in Bottineau County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Omemee
  • Perth
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
  • Bottineau
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
  • Rugby
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
  • Pleasant Lake
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
    • Pleasant Lake is located in Benson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pleasant Lake
  • Bisbee
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
  • Berwick
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Berwick is located in McHenry County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Berwick
  • Knox
    (29 miles [46.7 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 Thorne. See our List of 1890's Communities around Thorne.

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Thorne ...

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 47 newspapers that have been published in the area around Thorne.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Thorne. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Thorne and those printed in the larger area surrounding Thorne.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<2> of Thorne.

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 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 Thorne:

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>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- Thorne) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<3>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.
<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 Thorne, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.