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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 McKinley (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 McKinley. 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 southeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals 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.

McKinley is located in Coos 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 Coos County: Curry & Douglas.

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

  • Coos County     (The home county of McKinley)
    • The following are listed by their distance from McKinley, with the one closest to McKinley listed first.
    • Dora
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
      • Dora is located in Coos County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dora
    • Gravelford
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Gravelford is located in Coos County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gravelford
    • Norway
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Coquille
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Arago
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Arago is located in Coos County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Arago
    • Myrtle Point
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Bridge
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
      • Bridge is located in Coos County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bridge
    • Coos City ‑ Historic
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Coos City is located in Coos County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Coos City
    • Broadbent
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Bunker Hill
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Bunker Hill is located in Coos County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bunker Hill
    • Eastside
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Remote
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Curry County
    • The following are listed by their distance from McKinley, with the one closest to McKinley listed first.
    • Langlois
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Denmark
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Denmark is located in Curry County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Denmark
  • Douglas County
    • The following are listed by their distance from McKinley, with the one closest to McKinley listed first.
    • Camas Valley
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Tenmile
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
    • Lookingglass
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
      • Lookingglass is located in Douglas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lookingglass
    • Cleveland
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
      • Cleveland is located in Douglas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cleveland
    • Melrose
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
      • Melrose is located in Douglas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Melrose
    • Brockway
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
      • Brockway is located in Douglas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brockway
    • Dillard
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
    • Winston
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
    • Umpqua
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)

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

Cemeteries Near McKinley ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of McKinley.

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

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

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

  • Dora Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
  • Fairview Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Norris - Barker Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
  • Lee Valley Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
  • Gravelford Pioneer Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
  • Myrtle Crest Memorial Gardens
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
  • Norway Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Norway Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Norway Cemetery is located in the vicinity of Norway
    • The Norway Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Norway Pioneer Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #39214 <2>
  • Sumner Pioneer Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
  • Coquille Pioneer Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
  • Masonic Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
  • Fishtrap Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Myrtle Point Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Myrtle Point Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Myrtle Point Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located outside and to the east of Myrtle Point.
    • The Myrtle Point Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Myrtle Point Pioneer Cemetery
    • Old Myrtle Point Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2230186 <2>
  • Continue List   (62 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.<3>

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

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

  • Lee ‑ Historic
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Lee is located in Coos County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lee
  • Fairview
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Fairview is located in Coos County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fairview
  • Dora
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Dora is located in Coos County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dora
  • Gravelford
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Gravelford is located in Coos County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gravelford
  • Norway
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Sitkum
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
    • Sitkum is located in Coos County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sitkum
  • Coquille
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
  • Arago
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Arago is located in Coos County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Arago
  • Myrtle Point
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
  • Coaledo
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
    • Coaledo is located in Coos County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Coaledo
  • Riverton
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
    • Riverton is located in Coos County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Riverton
  • Remote
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Continue List   (14 more) ...
    • Libby
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Libby is located in Coos County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Libby
    • Parkersburg
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
      • Parkersburg is located in Coos County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Parkersburg
    • Etelka ‑ Historic
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
      • Etelka is located in Coos County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Etelka

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

Newspapers Published in McKinley ...

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 40 newspapers that have been published in the area around McKinley.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of McKinley, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for McKinley.

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 McKinley:

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>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 McKinley, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<4>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- McKinley) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.