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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 Galena (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 Galena. 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 doctors and 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.

Galena is located in Snohomish 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 Snohomish County: Chelan, Island, King & Skagit.

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

  • Snohomish County     (The home county of Galena)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Galena, with the one closest to Galena listed first.
    • Monte Cristo ‑ Historic
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
      • Monte Cristo is located in Snohomish County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Monte Cristo
    • Index
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Index is located in Snohomish County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Index
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 214 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Index <1>
    • May Creek
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
      • May Creek is located in Snohomish County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for May Creek
    • Gold Bar
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
    • Startup
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
      • Startup is located in Snohomish County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Startup
    • Silverton
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Silverton is located in Snohomish County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Silverton
    • North Sultan
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
      • North Sultan is located in Snohomish County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Sultan
    • Sultan
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
      • Sultan is located in Snohomish County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sultan
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 5,673 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Sultan <1>
    • Verlot
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
      • Verlot is located in Snohomish County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Verlot
    • Woods Creek
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
      • Woods Creek is located in Snohomish County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Woods Creek
    • Lake Roesiger
      (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
      • Lake Roesiger is located in Snohomish County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lake Roesiger
    • Pilchuck
      (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
      • Pilchuck is located in Snohomish County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pilchuck
  • King County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Galena, with the one closest to Galena listed first.
    • Baring
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
    • Grotto
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
      • Grotto is located in King County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grotto
    • Skykomish
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
    • Lake Marcel - Stillwater
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Carnation
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Duvall
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Spring Glen
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Spring Glen is located in King County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spring Glen
    • Ames Lake
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Ames Lake is located in King County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ames Lake
    • Fall City
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Snoqualmie
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Northwest Snohomish
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
      • Northwest Snohomish is located in King County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Northwest Snohomish
  • Skagit County
    • Mansford
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
      • Mansford is located in Skagit County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mansford

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

Cemeteries Near Galena ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Galena.

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

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

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

  • IOOF Cemetery
    (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
  • Monroe Memorial Park
    (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
  • Suiattle Cemetery
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
  • American Legion Cemetery
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
  • Machias Community Cemetery
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
  • Indian Cemetery
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)

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 Galena in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Galena.

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

  • Sultan
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
    • Sultan is located in Snohomish County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sultan
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 5,673 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Sultan <1>
  • Pilchuck
    (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
    • Pilchuck is located in Snohomish County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pilchuck
  • Monroe
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
    • Monroe is located in Snohomish County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Monroe
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 20,681 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Monroe <1>
  • Granite Falls
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Novelty
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Novelty is located in King County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Novelty
  • Machias
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
    • Machias is located in Snohomish County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Machias
  • Mansford
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
    • Mansford is located in Skagit County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mansford
  • Snoqualmie Falls
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Snoqualmie Falls is located in King County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Snoqualmie Falls
  • Hartford
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
    • Hartford is located in Snohomish County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hartford

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

Newspapers Published in Galena ...

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 57 newspapers that have been published in the area around Galena.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Galena, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Galena.

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 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 Galena:

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