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 Kimmell (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 Kimmell. 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 northwest 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 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 west 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.
Kimmell is located in Wallowa 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 Wallowa County: Adams (ID), Idaho (ID), Nez Perce (ID), Baker, Umatilla, Union, Asotin (WA), Columbia (WA) & Garfield (WA).
Below are the counties that are near Kimmell. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Kimmell:
- Wallowa County (The home county of Kimmell)
- The following are listed by their distance from Kimmell, with the one closest to Kimmell listed first.
- Maxville ‑ Historic
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
- Maxville is located in Wallowa County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Maxville
- Promise ‑ Historic
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
- Promise is located in Wallowa County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Promise
- Wallowa
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
- Evans
(21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
- Evans is located in Wallowa County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Evans
- Lostine
(21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
- Troy
(23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
- Troy is located in Wallowa County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Troy
- Flora ‑ Historic
(26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
- Flora is located in Wallowa County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Flora
- Enterprise
(30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
- Umatilla County
- The following are listed by their distance from Kimmell, with the one closest to Kimmell listed first.
- Tollgate
(16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
- Tollgate is located in Umatilla County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tollgate
- Bingham Springs
(22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
- Bingham Springs is located in Umatilla County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bingham Springs
- Gibbon
(28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
- Gibbon is located in Umatilla County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gibbon
- Union County
- The following are listed by their distance from Kimmell, with the one closest to Kimmell listed first.
- Elgin
(11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
- Elgin is located in Union County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elgin
- Population from the 2020 Census: 1,801 people
- Former names for Elgin:
- Fish Trap
- Indian Valley
- Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Elgin <1>
- Imbler
(18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
- Summerville
(18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
- Conley
(25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
- Conley is located in Union County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Conley
- Cove
(27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
- Island City
(27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
- Island City is located in Union County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Island City
- Population from the 2020 Census: 1,024 people
- La Grande
(29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
- Orodell ‑ Historic
(29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
- Orodell is located in Union County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Orodell
For an expanded list of the communities that are closest to Kimmell, see our County-by-County Page for Kimmell.
Cemeteries Near Kimmell ...
Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Kimmell.
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 Kimmell - one of the links might be able to help.
If not found below, our Cemetery List for Kimmell covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.
The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Kimmell, with the one closest to Kimmell listed first.
- Mt. Pleasant Cemetery
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
- Highland Cemetery
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
- Pine Grove Cemetery
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
- Galloway Cemetery
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
- Elgin Cemetery
(11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
- Bramlet Memorial Cemetery
(11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
- Indian Creek Cemetery
(13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
- Wallowa Cemetery
(15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
- Eden Cemetery
(16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
- Summerville - Imbler Cemetery
(18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Summerville - Imbler Cemetery
- To give a relative sense of its location, the Summerville - Imbler Cemetery is located between<2> the communities of Imbler and Summerville. The cemetery lies less than 2 miles<3> to the southeast of Summerville.
- Lower Cove Cemetery
(21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lower Cove Cemetery
- The Lower Cove Cemetery has also been known as:
- Wright Cemetery
- Lostine Cemetery
(21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
- Continue List (14 more) ...
- Nicoson Cemetery
(25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
- Bartlett Cemetery
(25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
- Ackles Cemetery
(26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
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 Kimmell in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Kimmell.
These communities are listed based on their distance from Kimmell, with the one closest to Kimmell listed first.
- Elgin
(11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
- Elgin is located in Union County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elgin
- Population from the 2020 Census: 1,801 people
- Former names for Elgin:
- Fish Trap
- Indian Valley
- Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Elgin <1>
- Wallowa
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
- Summerville
(18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
- Imbler
(18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
- Lostine
(21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
- Alicel
(22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
- Alicel is located in Union County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Alicel
- Flora ‑ Historic
(26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
- Flora is located in Wallowa County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Flora
- North Fork
(27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
- North Fork is located in Umatilla County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Fork
- Island City
(27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
- Island City is located in Union County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Island City
- Population from the 2020 Census: 1,024 people
- Cove
(27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
- Gibbon
(28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
- Gibbon is located in Umatilla County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gibbon
- La Grande
(29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
We've also created an expanded list of communities that existed in the 1890's and were located in the area around Kimmell. See our List of 1890's Communities around Kimmell.
Newspapers Published in Kimmell ...
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 38 newspapers that have been published in the area around Kimmell.
Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Kimmell, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Kimmell.
Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...
When we do our genealogical research, we start with the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These 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 Kimmell:
- Websites specific to Oregon
- Pages specific to Wallowa County
- Genealogy information for nearby counties
- Umatilla County
- Union County
- Cemetery Information and Directories for Oregon
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> | To help visualize the location of the cemetery, we've drawn a straight line between the communities of Imbler and Summerville. The cemetery can be found near that line and roughly halfway between the two communities. Remember that this is just an approximate location. |
| <3> | Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or 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- Kimmell) 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 Kimmell, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy. |