RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
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Our Genealogy Helper

Introduction ...

Although we found mention of Matlin during our research, we have little information about it.<1> Given the context of how Matlin was mentioned, we believe that it was a community rather than a locale or some type of landmark. We have done a cursory search and if it was a community, we haven't been able to find any evidence that it still exists..

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 Matlin (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 Matlin. 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 and 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.

Matlin is located in Box Elder County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Box Elder County: Cassia (ID), Oneida (ID), Elko (NV), Cache, Tooele & Weber.

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

  • Box Elder County     (The home county of Matlin)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Matlin, with the one closest to Matlin listed first.
    • Terrace ‑ Historic
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
      • Terrace is located in Box Elder County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Terrace
    • Russian Settlement ‑ Historic
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
      • Russian Settlement is located in Box Elder County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Russian Settlement
      • Russian Settlement has also been known as:
      • Molokane Settlement
      • Pryguny Settlement
    • Watercress Junction ‑ Historic
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Watercress Junction is located in Box Elder County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Watercress Junction
      • Watercress Junction has also been known as:
      • Watercress
    • Park Valley
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
    • Rosette
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
      • Rosette is located in Box Elder County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rosette
    • Kelton ‑ Historic
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
      • Kelton is located in Box Elder County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kelton
      • Former name for Kelton:
      • Indian Creek
    • Bovine
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
      • Bovine is located in Box Elder County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bovine
    • Jackson ‑ Historic
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
      • Jackson is located in Box Elder County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jackson
    • Hogup
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
      • Hogup is located in Box Elder County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hogup
    • Hardup
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Hardup is located in Box Elder County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hardup
    • Boston Terrace ‑ Historic
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
      • Boston Terrace is located in Box Elder County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Boston Terrace
    • Pigeon
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
      • Pigeon is located in Box Elder County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pigeon
    • Grouse Creek
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
  • Cassia County (ID)
    • Standrod
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
      • Standrod is located in Cassia County (ID)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Standrod

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

Cemeteries Near Matlin ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Matlin.

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

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Matlin, with the one closest to Matlin 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.<5>

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

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

  • Terrace ‑ Historic
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Terrace is located in Box Elder County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Terrace
  • Park Valley
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
  • Kelton ‑ Historic
    (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
    • Kelton is located in Box Elder County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kelton
    • Former name for Kelton:
    • Indian Creek
  • Rosette
    (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
    • Rosette is located in Box Elder County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rosette
  • Bovine
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Bovine is located in Box Elder County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bovine
  • Grouse Creek
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
  • Yost
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
    • Yost is located in Box Elder County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Yost

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

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 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 Matlin:

Footnotes ...

<1>If we encounter the name of what might be a community, our methodology is to add that name to our Gazetteer. For example, we might find a sentence like "He went south past Matlin and then turned east". While Matlin could be some kind of landmark, we think that it's more likely to be a community. We've added Matlin as a placeholder with the hope that we'll be able to add more information in the future.

Just as a reminder: Our definition of a community is rather broad and includes those places (or areas) where several families lived and had a name which identified that place. For example, you might hear somebody say that they are going over to Mile's to see Pete ... Mile's is just a gas station and a couple of homes at the crossroads. While it might not be on the map, everybody in the area knows it by that name.

Places of interest include buildings at a crossroad, several families clustered in a hollow or maybe the location of a way station. It also includes places like mines, lumber camps, ferry crossings, etc. The community might still exist, is now gone or only existed for just a short period of time.

Also keep in mind that Matlin could have been on the original document by mistake, misspelled, the original/alternate name of a community that we've listed elsewhere or was placed in the wrong county. Sometimes a post office or train station would have a different name than the community where it's located, so two names might be referring to the same community - we're working to straighten it all out.

Since confusion between counties is common, we searched and weren't able to find another Utah community named Matlin.
<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 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.
<4>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Matlin) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<5>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 Matlin, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.