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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 Midvale (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 Midvale. 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 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.

Midvale is located in Yakima 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 Yakima County: Benton, Grant, Kittitas, Klickitat, Lewis, Pierce & Skamania.

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

  • Yakima County     (The home county of Midvale)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Midvale, with the one closest to Midvale listed first.
    • Sunnyside
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
    • Outlook
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Outlook
      • Outlook is located in Yakima County
    • Mabton
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • Grandview
      (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Satus
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Satus have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Satus
      • Satus is located in Yakima County
    • Granger
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Byron
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Byron
      • Byron is located in Yakima County
    • Zillah
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Toppenish
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Buena
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Wapato
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Moxee City
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Moxee City have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Moxee City
      • Moxee City is located in Yakima County
  • Benton County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Midvale, with the one closest to Midvale listed first.
    • Prosser
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Benton City
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
    • Paterson
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Grant County
  • Klickitat County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Midvale, with the one closest to Midvale listed first.
    • Bluelight
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bluelight
      • Bluelight is located in Klickitat County
    • Bickleton
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Cleveland
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cleveland
      • Cleveland is located in Klickitat County

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

Cemeteries Near Midvale ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Midvale.

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

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

  • Mabton Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Mabton Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Mabton Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Sunnyside Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Sunnyside Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Sunnyside Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Sunnyside Memorial Gardens
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Sunnyside Memorial Gardens
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Sunnyside Memorial Gardens have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Lower Valley Memorial Gardens
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Lower Valley Memorial Gardens
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Lower Valley Memorial Gardens have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Outlook Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Outlook Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Outlook Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Grandview Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Grandview Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Grandview Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Prosser Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
  • Glade Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Glade Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Glade Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Zillah Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
  • McCoy Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Black Rock Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Black Rock Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Black Rock Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Elmwood Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
  • Continue List   (14 more) ...
    • Beaver Cemetery
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Beaver Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Beaver Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Smina Cemetery
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Smina Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Smina Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Meninik Cemetery
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Meninik Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Meninik 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 Midvale in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Midvale.

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

  • Mabton
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
  • Satus
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Satus have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Satus
    • Satus is located in Yakima County
  • Byron
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Byron
    • Byron is located in Yakima County
  • Toppenish
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
  • Bickleton
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
  • Moxee
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
  • Cleveland
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cleveland
    • Cleveland is located in Klickitat County
  • Parker
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Parker
    • Parker is located in Yakima County

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

Newspapers Published in Midvale ...

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 23 newspapers that have been published in the area around Midvale.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Midvale, 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 Midvale.

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 helpful 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 Midvale:

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

The official website for Yakima County: www.pan.co.yakima.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>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>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 Midvale, 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' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Midvale) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Midvale. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 46.2843, Longitude: -120.0145       In this case, the coordinates for Midvale have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 29 Apr 2025