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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 Wolford (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 Wolford. 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 doctors and 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.

Wolford is located in Pierce 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 Pierce County: Benson, Bottineau, McHenry, Rolette, Sheridan, Towner & Wells.

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

  • Pierce County     (The home county of Wolford)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Wolford, with the one closest to Wolford listed first.
    • Rugby
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Barton
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
      • Barton is located in Pierce County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Barton
    • Balta
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Benson County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Wolford, with the one closest to Wolford listed first.
    • Knox
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
    • Pleasant Lake
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Pleasant Lake is located in Benson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pleasant Lake
    • York
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Leeds
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
    • Niles
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
      • Niles is located in Benson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Niles
    • Brinsmade
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Isabel
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
  • Bottineau County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Wolford, with the one closest to Wolford listed first.
    • Overly
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
      • Overly is located in Bottineau County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Overly
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 17 people
    • Willow City
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
  • McHenry County
    • Berwick
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
      • Berwick is located in McHenry County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Berwick
  • Ramsey County
    • Churchs Ferry
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Rolette County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Wolford, with the one closest to Wolford listed first.
    • Mylo
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
    • Agate
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Rolette
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Shell Valley
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
      • Shell Valley is located in Rolette County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shell Valley
    • Belcourt
      (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
    • Rolla
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
      • 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>
    • Dunseith
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
    • San Haven
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
      • San Haven is located in Rolette County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for San Haven
    • East Dunseith
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)
      • East Dunseith is located in Rolette County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for East Dunseith
    • Saint John
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
  • Towner County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Wolford, with the one closest to Wolford listed first.
    • Bisbee
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Perth
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
    • Cando
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
    • Maza
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
      • Maza is located in Towner County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Maza
    • Egeland
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
    • Rocklake
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)

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

Cemeteries Near Wolford ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Wolford.

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

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

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

  • Pleasant Valley Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
  • South Ox Creek Lutheran Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
  • North Ox Creek Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
  • Knox Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
  • Mylo Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Knox Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
  • St. Marys Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
  • Teubner Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
  • Halling Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
  • Rolette Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
    • 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<3> to the northeast of Rolette.
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #102349 <2>
  • Zion Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
  • Little Flower Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
  • Continue List   (46 more) ...
    • Ostreim Cemetery
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Wahi Cemetery
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Westland Cemetery
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)

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 Wolford in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Wolford.

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

  • Pleasant Lake
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Pleasant Lake is located in Benson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pleasant Lake
  • Knox
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
  • York
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Rugby
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Bisbee
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
  • Leeds
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
  • Perth
    (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
  • Barton
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
    • Barton is located in Pierce County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Barton
  • Cando
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
  • Belcourt
    (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
  • Rolla
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
    • 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>
  • Berwick
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
    • Berwick is located in McHenry County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Berwick
  • Continue List   (4 more) ...
    • Brinsmade
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Dunseith
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Willow City
      (27 miles [43.5 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 Wolford. See our List of 1890's Communities around Wolford.

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Wolford ...

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 58 newspapers that have been published in the area around Wolford.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

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

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we begin with 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 Wolford:

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- Wolford) 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 Wolford, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.