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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 Bedal (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 Bedal. 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.

Bedal is located in Snohomish County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Snohomish County: Chelan, Island, King & Skagit.

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

  • Snohomish County     (The home county of Bedal)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Bedal, with the one closest to Bedal listed first.
    • Monte Cristo ‑ Historic
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Monte Cristo
      • Monte Cristo is located in Snohomish County
    • Silverton
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Silverton
      • Silverton is located in Snohomish County
    • Darrington
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Verlot
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Verlot have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Verlot
      • Verlot is located in Snohomish County
    • Fortson
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fortson
      • Fortson is located in Snohomish County
    • Swede Heaven
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Swede Heaven
      • Swede Heaven is located in Snohomish County
    • Index
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Index
      • Index is located in Snohomish County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 214 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Index <1>
    • Gold Bar
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
    • May Creek
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for May Creek have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for May Creek
      • May Creek is located in Snohomish County
    • Startup
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Startup have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Startup
      • Startup is located in Snohomish County
    • North Sultan
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for North Sultan have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Sultan
      • North Sultan is located in Snohomish County
    • Pilchuck
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pilchuck
      • Pilchuck is located in Snohomish County
  • Chelan County
    • Holden
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Holden
      • Holden is located in Chelan County
  • King County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Bedal, with the one closest to Bedal listed first.
    • Baring
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
    • Grotto
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grotto
      • Grotto is located in King County
    • Skykomish
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
  • Skagit County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Bedal, with the one closest to Bedal listed first.
    • Mansford
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Mansford. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mansford
      • Mansford is located in Skagit County
    • Rockport
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
    • Marblemount
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)

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

Cemeteries Near Bedal ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Bedal.

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

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

  • Suiattle Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Suiattle Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Suiattle Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Indian Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Indian Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Indian Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • American Legion Cemetery
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the American Legion Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the American Legion Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • IOOF Cemetery
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the IOOF Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the IOOF Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.

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.<4>

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

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

  • Mansford
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Mansford. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mansford
    • Mansford is located in Skagit County
  • Pilchuck
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pilchuck
    • Pilchuck is located in Snohomish County
  • Sultan
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sultan
    • Sultan is located in Snohomish County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 5,673 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Sultan <1>
  • Granite Falls
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
  • Oso
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oso
    • Oso is located in Snohomish County
  • Sauk
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Sauk have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sauk
    • Sauk is located in Skagit County
  • Marblemount
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)

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

Newspapers Published in Bedal ...

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 20 newspapers that have been published in the area around Bedal.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Bedal, there are papers which were published within 26 miles [41.8 km]<5>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Bedal.

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 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 Bedal:

Unfortunately, we don't know of a website for Bedal. If you can help, please contact us through our Feedback Page.

The official website for Snohomish County: www.co.snohomish.wa.us/

The official website for State of Washington: https://wa.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>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.
<3>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.
<4>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 Bedal, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<5>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 drawn from Point A (ie- Bedal) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Bedal. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 48.0987, Longitude: -121.3959       In this case, the coordinates for Bedal have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 29 Apr 2025