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Our Genealogy Helper

Introduction ...

So far, we found very little information about Ajax. The little that we've found leads us believe that the community is historic.<1>

We've added Ajax to our Gazetteer with the hope that we can develop more information. If you can help us with Ajax, please Contact Us.

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 Ajax (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 Ajax. 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 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.

Although our information shows that the community of Ajax is historic, it would have been located within present day Gilliam County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Gilliam County: Morrow, Sherman, Wasco, Wheeler & Klickitat (WA).

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

  • Gilliam County     (The home county of Ajax)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Ajax, with the one closest to Ajax listed first.
    • Clem
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Clem. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clem
      • Clem is located in Gilliam County
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Clem
      • From Ajax to Clem
    • Condon
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Olex
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Olex. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Olex
      • Olex is located in Gilliam County
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Olex
      • From Ajax to Olex
    • Mayville
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
    • Arlington
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
  • Morrow County
    • Gooseberry
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Gooseberry. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gooseberry
      • Gooseberry is located in Morrow County
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Gooseberry
      • From Ajax to Gooseberry
  • Sherman County
  • Wasco County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Ajax, with the one closest to Ajax listed first.
    • Shaniko
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Nansene
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Nansene. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nansene
      • Nansene is located in Wasco County
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Nansene
      • From Ajax to Nansene
    • Rice ‑ Historic
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
  • Wheeler County
  • Klickitat County (WA)

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

Cemeteries Near Ajax ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Ajax.

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

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

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

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.

Ajax itself is historic and was described in the Rand McNally Atlas as having a post office and no railroad service.

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

  • Rutledge
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Rutledge have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rutledge
    • Rutledge is located in Sherman County
  • Igo ‑ Historic
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Igo have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Igo
    • Igo is located in Gilliam County
  • Monkland
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Monkland. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Monkland
    • Monkland is located in Sherman County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Monkland
    • From Ajax to Monkland
  • Clem
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Clem. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clem
    • Clem is located in Gilliam County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Clem
    • From Ajax to Clem
  • Condon
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
  • De Moss Springs
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
  • Moro
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
  • Olex
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Olex. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Olex
    • Olex is located in Gilliam County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Olex
    • From Ajax to Olex
  • Grass Valley
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
  • Kent
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Emigrant Springs ‑ Historic
    (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
  • Wasco
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
  • Continue List   (10 more) ...

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

Newspapers Published in Ajax ...

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 23 newspapers that have been published in the area around Ajax.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Ajax, there are papers which were published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<5>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Ajax.

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 Ajax:

Footnotes ...

<1>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 Ajax, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<2>An 'estimated' location is one where we have been given GPS coordinates, but are unable to verify the accuracy of those coordinates. That said, we have some confidence that we have placed the marker near the actual location. A typical reason for being unable to verify a location is that it might be on private property or maybe historic and gone without an obvious trace.
<3>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<4>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.
<5>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- Ajax) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Ajax. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 45.3694, Longitude: -120.4470    
<6>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.