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Our Genealogy Helper

Introduction ...

So far, we found very little information about Independence. The little that we've found leads us believe that the community is historic.<1>

We've added Independence to our Gazetteer with the hope that we can develop more information. If you can help us with Independence, please Contact Us.

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 Independence (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 Independence. 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.

Although our information shows that the community of Independence is historic, it would have been located within present day Uintah 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 Uintah County: Garfield (CO), Moffat (CO), Rio Blanco (CO), Carbon, Daggett, Duchesne, Emery, Grand & Summit.

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

  • Uintah County     (The home county of Independence)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Independence, with the one closest to Independence listed first.
    • Ballard
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ballard
      • Ballard is located in Uintah County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,105 people
    • Fort Duchesne
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Randlett
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Gusher
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Bennett
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bennett
      • Bennett is located in Uintah County
    • Hayden
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hayden
      • Hayden is located in Uintah County
    • Lapoint
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Lapoint have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lapoint
      • Lapoint is located in Uintah County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Lapoint <2>
    • Tridell
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
    • Whiterocks
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
    • Ouray
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ouray
      • Ouray is located in Uintah County
    • Fort Robidoux ‑ Historic
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Fort Robidoux. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<4>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fort Robidoux
      • Fort Robidoux is located in Uintah County
      • Fort Robidoux has also been known as:
      • Antoine Robidoux's Fort
      • Fort Kit Carson
      • William Reed's Post
    • Maeser
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Maeser
      • Maeser is located in Uintah County
    • Dry Fork
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dry Fork
      • Dry Fork is located in Uintah County
  • Duchesne County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Independence, with the one closest to Independence listed first.
    • Roosevelt
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Myton
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Cedarview ‑ Historic
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Cedarview have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cedarview
      • Cedarview is located in Duchesne County
    • Ioka
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Ioka have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ioka
      • Ioka is located in Duchesne County
    • Neola
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
    • Upalco
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Upalco
      • Upalco is located in Duchesne County
    • Bluebell
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Arcadia
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Arcadia
      • Arcadia is located in Duchesne County
      • Former name for Arcadia:
      • Red Cap
    • Bridgeland
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Bridgeland have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bridgeland
      • Bridgeland is located in Duchesne County
    • Mount Emmons
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Mount Emmons have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mount Emmons
      • Mount Emmons is located in Duchesne County
    • Altamont
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
    • Altonah
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Altonah
      • Altonah is located in Duchesne County
      • Former name for Altonah:
      • Queen City
    • Boneta
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Boneta
      • Boneta is located in Duchesne County

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

Newspapers Published in Independence ...

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 14 newspapers that have been published in the area around Independence.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Independence, there are papers which were published within 25 miles [40.2 km]<5>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Independence.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we 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 Independence:

Cemeteries Near Independence ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Independence.

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

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

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

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

  • Fort Duchesne
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
  • Whiterocks
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
  • Ouray
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ouray
    • Ouray is located in Uintah County
  • Vernal
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Vernal
    • Vernal is located in Uintah County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 10,468 people
    • Former names for Vernal:
    • Ashley
    • Bench
    • The Bench
    • Hatch
    • Jericho
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Vernal <2>
  • Naples
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)

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

The official website for Uintah County: www.co.uintah.ut.us/

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

Footnotes ...

<1>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 Independence, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<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>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.
<5>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Independence) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Independence. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 40.2479, Longitude: -109.9349       In this case, the coordinates for Independence have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>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