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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 Cedar City (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 Cedar City. 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.

Name Variations for Cedar City ...

When searching records, keep in mind that names and their spelling can change over time. Our sources include documents like maps, railroad schedules, Travel, Express and Shipping Guides. Many of these documents date from the 1800's and it's common to find spelling differences.

Although we can't give a definitive list, hopefully the following will give you a feel for the variations that might have occurred.

Over the years, Cedar City had several name changes:

  • Prior to its current name of Cedar City, it was known as Coal Creek.
  • Before changing to Coal Creek, it was named Little Muddy.
  • The city of Cedar City was originally named Little Muddy

If you have information about these names (such as the reason for the change, date of change, the origin of the name), please Contact Us.

A Few Details for Cedar City ...

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

  • Cedar City was established in 1851.

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 northeast 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 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 east 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.

Cedar City is located in Iron County.

To see how the shape of Utah's counties have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Iron County: Lincoln (NV), Beaver, Garfield, Kane & Washington.

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

  • Iron County     (The home county of Cedar City)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Cedar City, with the one closest to Cedar City listed first.
    • Cedar Highlands
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cedar Highlands
      • Cedar Highlands is located in Iron County
    • Enoch
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Johnson's Fort ‑ Historic
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Johnson's Fort. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Johnson's Fort
      • Johnson's Fort is located in Iron County
      • Johnson's Fort has also been known as:
      • Johnson Springs
    • Hamiltons Fort
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hamiltons Fort
      • Hamiltons Fort is located in Iron County
      • Former names for Hamiltons Fort:
      • Fort Hamblin
      • Fort Sidon
      • Fort Walker
      • Hambleton
      • Hamblin
      • Shirts Creek
      • Sidon
      • Hamiltons Fort has also been known as:
      • Hamilton Fort
      • Hamilton
    • Fort Johnson ‑ Historic
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Fort Johnson have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fort Johnson
      • Fort Johnson is located in Iron County
    • Summit
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Fort Kanarra ‑ Historic
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Fort Kanarra. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fort Kanarra
      • Fort Kanarra is located in Iron County
    • Kanarraville
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Kanarraville have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kanarraville
      • Kanarraville is located in Iron County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 410 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Kanarraville <1>
    • Brian Head
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
    • Parowan Adobe Fort ‑ Historic
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Parowan Adobe Fort. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Parowan Adobe Fort
      • Parowan Adobe Fort is located in Iron County
    • Parowan
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Avon
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Avon
      • Avon is located in Iron County
    • Little Pinto ‑ Historic
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Little Pinto. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Little Pinto
      • Little Pinto is located in Iron County
      • Little Pinto has also been known as:
      • Page Ranch
  • Garfield County
  • Kane County
  • Washington County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Cedar City, with the one closest to Cedar City listed first.
    • Fort Harmony ‑ Historic
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fort Harmony
      • Fort Harmony is located in Washington County
    • Blue Springs
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Blue Springs
      • Blue Springs is located in Washington County
    • New Harmony
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Pintura
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pintura
      • Pintura is located in Washington County
      • Former names for Pintura:
      • Ashton
      • Bellvue
    • Pinto
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pinto
      • Pinto is located in Washington County
    • Little Zion ‑ Historic
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Little Zion
      • Little Zion is located in Washington County
    • Anderson Junction
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Anderson Junction
      • Anderson Junction is located in Washington County
      • Former names for Anderson Junction:
      • Anderson's Ranch
      • McPhersons Flat
    • Hamblin ‑ Historic
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Hamblin. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hamblin
      • Hamblin is located in Washington County

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Cedar City ...

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 6 newspapers that have been published in the area around Cedar City.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Cedar City. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Cedar City and those printed in the larger area surrounding Cedar City.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 17 miles [27.4 km]<4> of Cedar City.

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 Cedar City:

Cemeteries Near Cedar City ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Cedar City.

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

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

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.<6>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Cedar City had a population of 967 people in 1895 with a post office and no railroad service. In 2020, Cedar City had a population of 36,090 people.

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

  • Kanarraville
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Kanarraville have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kanarraville
    • Kanarraville is located in Iron County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 410 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Kanarraville <1>
  • Parowan
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
  • New Harmony
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
  • Paragonah
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Paragonah
    • Paragonah is located in Iron County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 556 people
    • Former names for Paragonah:
    • Paragoonah
    • Red Creek
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Paragonah <1>
  • Pinto
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pinto
    • Pinto is located in Washington County

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

The official website for Cedar City: www.cedarcity.org/

The official website for Iron County: www.ironnet.org/

The official website for State of Utah: https://www.utah.gov/

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>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.
<3>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.
<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- Cedar City) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Cedar City. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 37.6809, Longitude: -113.0670    
<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.
<6>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 Cedar City, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024