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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 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.

Willow City is located in Bottineau 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 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)
      • Omemee is located in Bottineau County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Omemee
    • Overly
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
      • Overly is located in Bottineau County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Overly
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 17 people
    • Gardena
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Gardena is located in Bottineau County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gardena
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 28 people
    • Bottineau
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
    • White ‑ Historic
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
      • White is located in Bottineau County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for White
    • Kramer
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
    • Souris
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Russell
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
      • Russell is located in Bottineau County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Russell
    • Newburg
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
  • Benson County
    • Pleasant Lake
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Pleasant Lake is located in Benson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pleasant Lake
  • 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)
      • Berwick is located in McHenry County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Berwick
    • 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)
  • 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)
      • Barton is located in Pierce County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Barton
    • Rugby
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Wolford
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
  • 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)
    • San Haven
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
      • San Haven is located in Rolette County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for San Haven
    • Rolette
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
    • East Dunseith
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
      • East Dunseith is located in Rolette County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for East Dunseith
    • Shell Valley
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
      • Shell Valley is located in Rolette County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shell Valley
    • Kelvin
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Kelvin is located in Rolette County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kelvin
    • Belcourt
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Mylo
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)

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

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 Willow City - one of the links might be able to help.

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)
  • Little Fargo Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
  • Tasco Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
  • Evangelical Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Willow Creek Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Southwest Barton Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
  • Zion Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Zion Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Tarus Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
  • Melankton Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
  • Bantry Union Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Mouse River Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Continue List   (32 more) ...
    • Oak Creek Cemetery
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Riverside Cemetery
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
    • St. Louis Cemetery
      (16 miles [25.7 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>

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)
    • Omemee is located in Bottineau County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Omemee
  • Barton
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Barton is located in Pierce County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Barton
  • Berwick
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
    • Berwick is located in McHenry County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Berwick
  • Bottineau
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Dunseith
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
  • Rugby
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
  • Denbigh
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Denbigh is located in McHenry County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Denbigh
  • Pleasant Lake
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Pleasant Lake is located in Benson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pleasant Lake
  • 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.

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]<4> 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 helpful 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:

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 Willow City, 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' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Willow City) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.