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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 Willow City (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 Willow City. 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 northeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals 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.

Willow City is located in Bottineau County.

To see how the shape of North Dakota's counties have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Bottineau County: McHenry, Pierce & Rolette.

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

  • Bottineau County     (The home county of Willow City)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Willow City, with the one closest to Willow City listed first.
    • Omemee ‑ Historic
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Omemee
      • Omemee is located in Bottineau County
    • Overly
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Overly have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Overly
      • Overly is located in Bottineau County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 17 people
    • Gardena
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Gardena have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gardena
      • Gardena is located in Bottineau County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 28 people
    • Bottineau
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Bottineau have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bottineau
      • Bottineau is located in Bottineau County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,147 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Bottineau <2>
    • White ‑ Historic
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for White
      • White is located in Bottineau County
    • Kramer
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Kramer have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kramer
      • Kramer is located in Bottineau County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 28 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Kramer <2>
    • Souris
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Souris have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Souris
      • Souris is located in Bottineau County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 53 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Souris <2>
    • Russell
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Russell
      • Russell is located in Bottineau County
    • Newburg
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
  • Benson County
    • Pleasant Lake
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Pleasant Lake have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pleasant Lake
      • Pleasant Lake is located in Benson County
  • McHenry County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Willow City, with the one closest to Willow City listed first.
    • Berwick
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Berwick have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Berwick
      • Berwick is located in McHenry County
    • Bantry
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Towner
      (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
    • Upham
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Upham have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Upham
      • Upham is located in McHenry County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 138 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Upham <2>
  • Pierce County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Willow City, with the one closest to Willow City listed first.
    • Barton
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Barton have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Barton
      • Barton is located in Pierce County
    • Rugby
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Wolford
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Wolford have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wolford
      • Wolford is located in Pierce County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 32 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Wolford <2>
  • Rolette County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Willow City, with the one closest to Willow City listed first.
    • Dunseith
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Dunseith have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dunseith
      • Dunseith is located in Rolette County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 768 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Dunseith <2>
    • San Haven
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for San Haven
      • San Haven is located in Rolette County
    • Rolette
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
    • East Dunseith
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for East Dunseith have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for East Dunseith
      • East Dunseith is located in Rolette County
    • Shell Valley
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Shell Valley have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shell Valley
      • Shell Valley is located in Rolette County
    • Kelvin
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kelvin
      • Kelvin is located in Rolette County
    • Belcourt
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Mylo
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Mylo have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mylo
      • Mylo is located in Rolette County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 23 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Mylo <2>

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Willow City ...

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 54 newspapers that have been published in the area around Willow City.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Willow City. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Willow City and those printed in the larger area surrounding Willow City.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<3> of Willow City.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first turn to 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 Willow City:

Cemeteries Near Willow City ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Willow City.

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.

If you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our selection of Genealogy Websites (see below).

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

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

  • Notre Dame Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Notre Dame Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Notre Dame Cemetery
  • Little Fargo Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Little Fargo Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Little Fargo Cemetery
  • Tasco Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Tasco Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Tasco Cemetery
  • Evangelical Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Evangelical Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Evangelical Cemetery
  • Willow Creek Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Willow Creek Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Willow Creek Cemetery
  • Southwest Barton Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Southwest Barton Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Southwest Barton Cemetery
  • Zion Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Zion Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Zion Cemetery
  • Zion Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Zion Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Zion Cemetery
  • Tarus Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Tarus Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Tarus Cemetery
  • Melankton Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Melankton Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Melankton Cemetery
  • Bantry Union Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Mouse River Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Mouse River Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Mouse River Cemetery
  • Continue List   (31 more) ...
    • Oak Creek Cemetery
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Riverside Cemetery
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Riverside Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Riverside Cemetery
    • St. Louis Cemetery
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Louis Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Louis Cemetery

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>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Willow City had a population of 24 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Willow City had a population of 150 people.

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

  • Omemee ‑ Historic
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Omemee
    • Omemee is located in Bottineau County
  • Barton
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Barton have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Barton
    • Barton is located in Pierce County
  • Berwick
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Berwick have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Berwick
    • Berwick is located in McHenry County
  • Bottineau
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Bottineau have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bottineau
    • Bottineau is located in Bottineau County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,147 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Bottineau <2>
  • Dunseith
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Dunseith have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dunseith
    • Dunseith is located in Rolette County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 768 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Dunseith <2>
  • Rugby
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
  • Denbigh
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Denbigh have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Denbigh
    • Denbigh is located in McHenry County
  • Pleasant Lake
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Pleasant Lake have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pleasant Lake
    • Pleasant Lake is located in Benson County
  • Belcourt
    (29 miles [46.7 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 Willow City. See our List of 1890's Communities around Willow City.

Unfortunately, we don't know of a website for Willow City. If you can help, please contact us through our Feedback Page.

The official website for State of North Dakota: www.nd.gov/

Footnotes ...

<1>The location has been supplied by the Geographic Names Information System - which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While these values should be definitive, we found that accuracy can vary and you should double-check the location if accuracy is required.
<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' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Willow City) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Willow City. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 48.6047, Longitude: -100.2932       In this case, the coordinates for Willow City have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<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 Willow City, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024