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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 Kings Valley (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 Kings Valley. 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.

Name Variations for Kings Valley ...

When searching records, keep in mind that names and their spelling can change over time. Our sources include documents like maps, railroad schedules, Travel, Express and Shipping Guides. Many of these documents date from the 1800's and it's common to find spelling differences.

Although we can't give a definitive list, hopefully the following will give you a feel for the variations that might have occurred.

  • A typical abbreviation for Kings Valley: Kings Vly. (or less commonly used: Kings Vally. or Kings Vlly.)
  • While the name of this community is Kings Valley, be aware that it's the common practice of mapmakers to remove the apostrophe from possessive names<1>. So Kings Valley may originally have been King's Valley.

    Sometimes the trailing 's' might be dropped altogether, in which case Kings Valley might be written as King Valley.

If you have information about these names (such as the reason for the change, date of change, the origin of the name), please Contact Us.

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 southeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors were in the next county to the east. 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 east 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.

Kings Valley is located in Benton 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 Benton County: Lane, Lincoln, Linn, Marion & Polk.

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

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

Cemeteries Near Kings Valley ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Kings Valley.

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.

If you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our selection of Genealogy Websites (see below).

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

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

  • Kings Valley Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
  • King Family Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
  • Ft. Hoskins Military Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Womer Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Womer Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Womer Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Edwards Pioneer Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Edwards Pioneer Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Edwards Pioneer Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Pedee Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Pedee Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Pedee Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Taylor Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Taylor Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Taylor Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Claremont Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Claremont Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Claremont Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Williams Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Williams Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Williams Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Montgomery Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Montgomery Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Montgomery Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Wren Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
  • May Stouts Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the May Stouts Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the May Stouts Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • The May Stouts Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Hamar Cemetery
    • Mays Cemetery
    • Mays Strouts Cemetery
    • Strouts Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #39107 <5>
  • Continue List   (141 more) ...

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.<6>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that in 1895, Kings Valley had a post office and no railroad service.

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

  • Hoskins
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Hoskins have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hoskins
    • Hoskins is located in Benton County
  • Airlie
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
  • Wren
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Wren. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wren
    • Wren is located in Benton County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Wren
    • From Kings Valley to Wren
  • Lewisville
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Summit
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Blodgett
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Harris
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Harris have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harris
    • Harris is located in Benton County
  • Simpson
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Simpson have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Simpson
    • Simpson is located in Polk County
  • Lewisburg
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Falls City
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
  • Philomath
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
  • Corvallis
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Continue List   (14 more) ...
    • Wellsdale
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Wellsdale have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wellsdale
      • Wellsdale is located in Benton County
    • Suver
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Suver have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Suver
      • Suver is located in Polk County
    • Buena Vista
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)

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

Newspapers Published in Kings Valley ...

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 81 newspapers that have been published in the area around Kings Valley.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Kings Valley, there are papers which were published within 25 miles [40.2 km]<7>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Kings Valley.

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 Kings Valley:

Unfortunately, we don't know of a website for Kings Valley. If you can help, please contact us through our Feedback Page.

The official website for Benton County: www.co.benton.or.us/

The official website for State of Oregon: https://www.oregon.gov/

Footnotes ...

<1>It's generally believed that possessive apostrophes are removed to prevent confusion on maps where the apostrophe may be confused with a cartographic symbol. While this is generally true, it's not uncommon to find possessive apostrophes in administrative names (such as towns or counties).
<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>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.
<6>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 Kings Valley, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<7>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- Kings Valley) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Kings Valley. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 44.7018, Longitude: -123.4320    









 

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This page was last modified/updated: 15 Jul 2025