RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Washington >> Whatcom County >> Balford >> Genealogy HelperIndex...

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 Balford (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 Balford. 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 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.

Balford is located in Whatcom County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Whatcom County: Okanogan, San Juan & Skagit.

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

  • Whatcom County     (The home county of Balford)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Balford, with the one closest to Balford listed first.
    • Peaceful Valley
      (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
      • Peaceful Valley is located in Whatcom County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Peaceful Valley
    • Kendall
      (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
      • Kendall is located in Whatcom County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kendall
    • Maple Falls
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Sumas
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Sumas is located in Whatcom County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sumas
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,629 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Sumas <1>
    • Welcome
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
      • Welcome is located in Whatcom County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Welcome
    • Nooksack
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
      • Nooksack is located in Whatcom County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nooksack
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,659 people
    • Deming
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
    • Clearbrook
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
      • Clearbrook is located in Whatcom County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clearbrook
    • Everson
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Glacier
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
    • Clipper
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
      • Clipper is located in Whatcom County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clipper
    • Lynden
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
    • Acme
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
  • Skagit County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Balford, with the one closest to Balford listed first.
    • Alger
      (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
      • Alger is located in Skagit County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Alger
    • Lyman
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
    • Bow
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Edison
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Edison is located in Skagit County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Edison
    • Hamilton
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
    • Sedro - Woolley
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)

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

Cemeteries Near Balford ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Balford.

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

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

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

  • Kendall Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
  • St. Peters Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
  • Mt. Hope Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
  • Nooksack Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
  • Musselwhite Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
  • South Poplar Mennonite Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Van Zandt Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
  • Hazelwood Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hazelwood Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Hazelwood Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located in Abbotsford (BC).
    • The Hazelwood Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Matsqui Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2215972 <2>
  • MacLure Road Mennonite Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for MacLure Road Mennonite Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the MacLure Road Mennonite Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located in Abbotsford (BC).
    • The MacLure Road Mennonite Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Hazelwood / McClure Road Mennonite Cemetery
    • McClure Road Mennonite Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2215356 <2>
  • Yarrow Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
  • Indian Joe Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
  • Vedder View Gardens Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Continue List   (38 more) ...

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.<3>

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

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

  • Welcome
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
    • Welcome is located in Whatcom County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Welcome
  • Sumas
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Sumas is located in Whatcom County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sumas
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,629 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Sumas <1>
  • Nooksack
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Nooksack is located in Whatcom County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nooksack
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,659 people
  • Deming
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
  • Clearbrook
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Clearbrook is located in Whatcom County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clearbrook
  • Hampton
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Hampton is located in Whatcom County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hampton
  • Everson
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
  • Goshen
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Goshen is located in Whatcom County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Goshen
  • Wahl
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Wahl is located in Whatcom County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wahl
  • Lynden
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
  • Van Wyck
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Van Wyck is located in Whatcom County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Van Wyck
  • Acme
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
  • Continue List   (16 more) ...
    • Laurel
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
      • Laurel is located in Whatcom County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Laurel
    • Silver Beach
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Silver Beach is located in Whatcom County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Silver Beach
    • Geneva
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
      • Geneva is located in Whatcom County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Geneva

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

Newspapers Published in Balford ...

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 71 newspapers that have been published in the area around Balford.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Balford, there are papers which were published within 27 miles [43.5 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Balford.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first visit 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 Balford:

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>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.
<3>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 Balford, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<4>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 from Point A (ie- Balford) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.