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A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
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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 Royal (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 Royal. 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.

Royal is located in Lane 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 Lane County: Benton, Deschutes, Douglas, Klamath, Lincoln & Linn.

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

  • Lane County     (The home county of Royal)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Royal, with the one closest to Royal listed first.
    • Saginaw
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Walker
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
      • Walker is located in Lane County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Walker
    • Cottage Grove
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Divide ‑ Historic
      (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
      • Divide is located in Lane County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Divide
    • Lorane
      (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Cresswell
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Creswell
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Goshen
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
      • Goshen is located in Lane County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Goshen
    • Pleasant Hill
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Eugene
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
    • Trent
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Trent is located in Lane County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Trent
    • Crow
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
      • Crow is located in Lane County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crow
    • Dorena ‑ Historic
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Douglas County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Royal, with the one closest to Royal listed first.
    • Curtin
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Drain
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
      • Drain is located in Douglas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Drain
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,201 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Drain <1>
    • Yoncalla
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Elkhead
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
      • Elkhead is located in Douglas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elkhead
    • Rice Hill
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
    • Isadore
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
      • Isadore is located in Douglas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Isadore
    • Elkton
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Fair Oaks
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
      • Fair Oaks is located in Douglas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fair Oaks
    • Oakland
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
    • Old Town
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
      • Old Town is located in Douglas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Old Town
    • Kellogg
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Kellogg is located in Douglas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kellogg

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

Cemeteries Near Royal ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Royal.

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

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

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

  • Silk Creek Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
  • Fir Grove Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
  • McFarland Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
  • Hawley Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
  • Shields Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
  • Walker Union Church Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
  • Crow Family Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
  • Jackson Family Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
  • Independent Order of Good Templars Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
  • Comstock Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Taylor - Lane Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Sears Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Continue List   (92 more) ...
    • Creswell Association Cemetery
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Lorane Grange Cemetery
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Moxley Cemetery
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)

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.<2>

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

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

  • Cottage Grove
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
  • Walker
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Walker is located in Lane County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Walker
  • Divide ‑ Historic
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Divide is located in Lane County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Divide
  • Lorane
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
  • Comstock
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Comstock is located in Douglas County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Comstock
  • Cresswell
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
  • Wallace ‑ Historic
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
    • Wallace is located in Lane County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wallace
  • Pleasant Hill
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
  • Goshen
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Goshen is located in Lane County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Goshen
  • Hadleyville
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Hadleyville is located in Lane County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hadleyville
  • Drain
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Drain is located in Douglas County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Drain
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,201 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Drain <1>
  • Wildwood
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
    • Wildwood is located in Lane County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wildwood
  • Continue List   (16 more) ...
    • Trent
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Trent is located in Lane County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Trent
    • Eugene
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
    • Crow
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
      • Crow is located in Lane County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crow

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

Newspapers Published in Royal ...

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 92 newspapers that have been published in the area around Royal.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Royal, there are papers which were published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Royal.

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 websites either 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 Royal:

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>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 Royal, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<3>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 drawn from Point A (ie- Royal) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.