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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 Mitchell (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 Mitchell. 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.

A Few Details for Mitchell ...

While it's still very early in our research, we found that:

  • Mitchell was founded in 1837.
  • It was incorporated in 1891.

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 and 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.

Mitchell is located in Wheeler 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 Wheeler County: Crook, Gilliam, Grant, Jefferson & Sherman.

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

  • Wheeler County     (The home county of Mitchell)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Mitchell, with the one closest to Mitchell listed first.
    • Waldron ‑ Historic
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Waldron
      • Waldron is located in Wheeler County
    • Richmond ‑ Historic
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Richmond have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Richmond
      • Richmond is located in Wheeler County
    • Spray
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Winlock
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Winlock
      • Winlock is located in Wheeler County
    • Kinzua ‑ Historic
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kinzua
      • Kinzua is located in Wheeler County
    • Fossil
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
  • Crook County
    • Scissorsville ‑ Historic
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Scissorsville. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Scissorsville
      • Scissorsville is located in Crook County
  • Grant County
  • Jefferson County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Mitchell, with the one closest to Mitchell listed first.
    • Horse Heaven ‑ Historic
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Horse Heaven
      • Horse Heaven is located in Jefferson County
    • Donnybrook ‑ Historic
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Donnybrook have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Donnybrook
      • Donnybrook is located in Jefferson County
      • Former names for Donnybrook:
      • Axehandle
      • Kilts
  • Wasco County
    • Clarno
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clarno
      • Clarno is located in Wasco County

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Mitchell ...

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 5 newspapers that have been published in the area around Mitchell.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Mitchell. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Mitchell and those printed in the larger area surrounding Mitchell.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<4> of Mitchell.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we like to 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 Mitchell:

Cemeteries Near Mitchell ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Mitchell.

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 Mitchell covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

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

  • Mitchell Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Mitchell Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Mitchell Cemetery
  • Lower Mitchell Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Lower Mitchell Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Lower Mitchell Cemetery
  • Toney Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Toney Cemetery is located 6 miles [9.7 km]<4> to the southwest of Mitchell.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Toney Cemetery
  • West Branch Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the West Branch Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the West Branch Cemetery
  • Caleb Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Caleb Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Caleb Cemetery
  • Foppiano Family Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
  • Camp Watson Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Camp Watson Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Camp Watson Cemetery
  • Richmond Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Richmond Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Richmond Cemetery
  • Mary Waterman Grave
    (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Mary Waterman Grave have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Mary Waterman Grave
  • Spanish Gulch Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Spanish Gulch Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Spanish Gulch Cemetery
  • Howard Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Howard Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Howard Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #38921 <5>
  • Spray Cemetery
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Spray Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Spray Cemetery
  • Continue List   (9 more) ...
    • Winlock Cemetery
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Dayville Cemetery
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Dayville Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Dayville Cemetery
    • Haystack Cemetery
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Haystack Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Haystack Cemetery

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

The official website for Mitchell: mitchelloregon.us/

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

Footnotes ...

<1>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.
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<3>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.
<4>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a '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- Mitchell) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Mitchell. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 44.5667, Longitude: -120.1540    
<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.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024