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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 Upper Soda (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 Upper Soda. 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 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.

Upper Soda is located in Linn 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 Linn County: Benton, Deschutes, Jefferson, Lane, Marion & Polk.

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

  • Linn County     (The home county of Upper Soda)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Upper Soda, with the one closest to Upper Soda listed first.
    • Cascadia
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
    • Bryant City ‑ Historic
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
      • Bryant City is located in Linn County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bryant City
    • Foster
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
    • Sweet Home
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
    • Idanha
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
    • New Idanha
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Holley
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
      • Holley is located in Linn County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Holley
    • Gates
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
    • Mill City
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
    • Lacomb
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
      • Lacomb is located in Linn County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lacomb
    • Waterloo
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
      • Waterloo is located in Linn County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Waterloo
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 250 people
    • Crawfordsville
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
  • Lane County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Upper Soda, with the one closest to Upper Soda listed first.
    • Blue River
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
    • McKenzie Bridge
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
    • Belknap Springs
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
      • Belknap Springs is located in Lane County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Belknap Springs
    • Finn Rock
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
    • Vida
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Leaburg
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Mabel
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Mabel is located in Lane County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mabel
  • Marion County
    • Detroit
      (23 miles [37 km] to the north)

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

Cemeteries Near Upper Soda ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Upper Soda.

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 Upper Soda - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • Whitcomb Island Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Renfrew Grave
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
  • Spring Family Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
  • Wiley Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
  • Lewis Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
  • Sweet Home Valley Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
  • Ames Cemetery
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
  • Berlin Cemetery
    (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
  • Fairview Cemetery
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
  • Craig Grave
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
  • John Swallow Grave
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
  • Liberty Cemetery
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
  • Continue List   (17 more) ...
    • Lacomb Cemetery
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Bellinger Cemetery
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
    • Linn Memorial Cemetery
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)

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>

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

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

  • Blue River
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
  • Belknap Springs
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
    • Belknap Springs is located in Lane County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Belknap Springs
  • Foley Springs
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Foley Springs is located in Lane County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Foley Springs
  • Sweet Home
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
  • Detroit
    (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
  • Niagara
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
    • Niagara is located in Marion County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Niagara
  • Holley
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
    • Holley is located in Linn County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Holley
  • Gates
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
  • Mill City
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
  • Continue List   (6 more) ...
    • Lacomb
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
      • Lacomb is located in Linn County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lacomb
    • Fox Valley
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Fox Valley is located in Linn County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fox Valley
    • Waterloo
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
      • Waterloo is located in Linn County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Waterloo
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 250 people
    • Leaburg
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Crawfordsville
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
    • Sodaville
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
      • Sodaville is located in Linn County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sodaville
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 346 people

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

Newspapers Published in Upper Soda ...

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 8 newspapers that have been published in the area around Upper Soda.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Upper Soda, there are papers which were published within 28 miles [45.1 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Upper Soda.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first turn to the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These professional and volunteer 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 Upper Soda:

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