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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 Murphy (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 Murphy. 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.

Murphy is located in Josephine 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 Josephine County: Del Norte (CA), Siskiyou (CA), Curry, Douglas & Jackson.

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

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

Cemeteries Near Murphy ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Murphy.

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

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

  • Hawthorne Memorial Gardens Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Hawthorne Memorial Gardens Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Hawthorne Memorial Gardens Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Granite Hill Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Granite Hill Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Granite Hill Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Missouri Flat Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Missouri Flat Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Missouri Flat Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Tokay Heights Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Tokay Heights Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Tokay Heights Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Wilderville Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Wilderville Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Wilderville Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Gotcher Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Gotcher Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Gotcher Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Sparlin Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Sparlin Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Sparlin Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Hillcrest Memorial Park
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Hillcrest Memorial Park
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Hillcrest Memorial Park have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Sloan Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Sloan Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Sloan Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Hartley Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Hartley Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Hartley Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Foots Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Foots Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Foots Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Woodville Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Woodville Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Woodville Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Continue List   (38 more) ...
    • Ferrydale Cemetery
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Ferrydale Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Ferrydale Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Deer Creek Cemetery
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Deer Creek Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Deer Creek Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Pleasant Valley Cemetery
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Pleasant Valley Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Pleasant Valley Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.

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>

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

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

  • Grants Pass
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
  • Wilderville
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
  • Williams
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
  • Applegate
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Draper ‑ Historic
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Draper have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Draper
    • Draper is located in Jackson County
  • Merlin
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
  • Rock Point ‑ Historic
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Rock Point. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rock Point
    • Rock Point is located in Jackson County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Rock Point
    • From Murphy to Rock Point
  • Gold Hill
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Wimer
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Jacksonville
    (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
  • Kerby
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
  • Althouse ‑ Historic
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Althouse have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Althouse
    • Althouse is located in Josephine County
  • Continue List   (14 more) ...
    • Steamboat
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Steamboat have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Steamboat
      • Steamboat is located in Jackson County
    • Tolo
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Tolo have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tolo
      • Tolo is located in Jackson County
    • Browntown ‑ Historic
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Browntown have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Browntown
      • Browntown is located in Josephine County

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

Newspapers Published in Murphy ...

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 33 newspapers that have been published in the area around Murphy.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Murphy, there are papers which were published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<5>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Murphy.

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 Murphy:

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

The official website for Josephine County: www.co.josephine.or.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>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 Murphy, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<5>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- Murphy) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Murphy. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 42.3475, Longitude: -123.3324    









 

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This page was last modified/updated: 29 Apr 2025