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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 Brownlee (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 Brownlee. 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 and doctors 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.

Brownlee is located in Baker County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Baker County: Adams (ID), Grant, Malheur, Union, Wallowa & Washington.

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

  • Baker County     (The home county of Brownlee)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Brownlee, with the one closest to Brownlee listed first.
    • Robinette ‑ Historic
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Robinette is located in Baker County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Robinette
    • Halfway
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Oxbow
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
    • Richland
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
    • Jimtown
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Jimtown is located in Baker County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jimtown
    • New Bridge
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
      • New Bridge is located in Baker County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for New Bridge
    • Homestead ‑ Historic
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
      • Homestead is located in Baker County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Homestead
    • Cornucopia ‑ Historic
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
      • Cornucopia is located in Baker County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cornucopia
    • Sparta ‑ Historic
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
      • Sparta is located in Baker County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sparta
    • Durkee
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Weatherby
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Weatherby is located in Baker County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Weatherby
  • Adams County (ID)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Brownlee, with the one closest to Brownlee listed first.
    • Fruitvale
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
    • Council
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
    • Mesa
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Tamarack
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
    • Rubicon
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
      • Rubicon is located in Adams County (ID)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rubicon
    • Indian Valley
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Washington County (ID)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Brownlee, with the one closest to Brownlee listed first.
    • Cambridge
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Midvale
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Midvale is located in Washington County (ID)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Midvale
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 162 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Midvale <1>

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

Cemeteries Near Brownlee ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Brownlee.

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

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

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

  • Pine Haven Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Eagle Valley Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
  • Copperfield - Homestead Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
  • Hornet Creek Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
  • Bear Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
  • Sparta Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
  • Cambridge Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
  • IOOF Cemetery
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
  • Odd Fellows Cemetery
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
  • Kessler Cemetery
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
  • Winkler Cemetery
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
  • Hibbard Creek Cemetery
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hibbard Creek Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Hibbard Creek Cemetery is located 8 miles [12.9 km]<3> to the east of Weatherby.
    • The Hibbard Creek Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Hibbard Creek Pioneer Cemetery
    • Home Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2171605 <2>
  • Continue List   (7 more) ...
    • Cottonwood Cemetery
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
    • Midvale Eastside Cemetery
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Goose Creek Cemetery
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Goose Creek Cemetery
      • The Goose Creek Cemetery has also been known as:
      • Keating Cemetery
      • Lower Powder 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.<4>

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

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

  • Mineral
    (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
    • Mineral is located in Washington County (ID)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mineral
  • Cornucopia ‑ Historic
    (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
    • Cornucopia is located in Baker County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cornucopia
  • Sparta ‑ Historic
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
    • Sparta is located in Baker County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sparta
  • Conner Creek ‑ Historic
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Conner Creek is located in Baker County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Conner Creek
  • Salubria
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Salubria is located in Washington County (ID)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Salubria

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

Newspapers Published in Brownlee ...

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 13 newspapers that have been published in the area around Brownlee.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Brownlee, there are papers which were published within 25 miles [40.2 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Brownlee.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first visit the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These websites either 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 Brownlee:

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 things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Brownlee) 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 Brownlee, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.