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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 Black River Falls (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 Black River Falls. 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.

Name Variations for Black River Falls ...

When searching records, keep in mind that names and their spelling can change over time. Our sources include documents like maps, railroad schedules, Travel, Express and Shipping Guides. Many of these documents date from the 1800's and it's common to find spelling differences.

Although we can't give a definitive list, hopefully the following will give you a feel for the variations that might occur.

  • A typical abbreviation for Black River Falls: Black Riv. Falls
  • In past government published Postal Guides, Black River Falls was referred to as Black River Falls Courthouse.

If you have information about these names (such as the reason for the change, date of change, the origin of the name), please Contact Us.

For more information about how community names might have been affected by the Board of Geographic Names (BGN), see our page about Placename Rules.

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 northwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors and hospitals were in the next county to the west. 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 west 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.

Black River Falls is located in Jackson County and is the County Seat.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Jackson County: Clark, Eau Claire, Juneau, La Crosse, Monroe, Trempealeau & Wood.

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

  • Jackson County     (The home county of Black River Falls)
  • Clark County
  • Crawford County
    • Lynxville
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
      • Lynxville is located in Crawford County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lynxville
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 125 people
  • Eau Claire County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Black River Falls, with the one closest to Black River Falls listed first.
    • Fairchild
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
    • Hay Creek
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Augusta
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Augusta is located in Eau Claire County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Augusta
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,517 people
  • Juneau County
  • La Crosse County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Black River Falls, with the one closest to Black River Falls listed first.
    • Mindoro
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Rockland
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
    • Bangor
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
      • Bangor is located in La Crosse County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bangor
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,442 people
    • West Salem
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
    • Holmen
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Holmen is located in La Crosse County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Holmen
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 10,368 people
  • Monroe County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Black River Falls, with the one closest to Black River Falls listed first.
    • Warrens
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Warrens is located in Monroe County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Warrens
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 346 people
    • Angelo
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
    • Sparta
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
    • Tunnel City
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
      • Tunnel City is located in Monroe County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tunnel City
    • Tomah
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Tomah is located in Monroe County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tomah
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 9,363 people
    • Valley Junction
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Wyeville
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Wyeville is located in Monroe County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wyeville
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 141 people
  • Trempealeau County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Black River Falls, with the one closest to Black River Falls listed first.
    • Blair
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
      • Blair is located in Trempealeau County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Blair
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,330 people
    • Pigeon Falls
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Coral City
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
      • Coral City is located in Trempealeau County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Coral City
    • Ettrick
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
      • Ettrick is located in Trempealeau County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ettrick
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 511 people
    • Whitehall
      (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
      • Whitehall is located in Trempealeau County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Whitehall
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,565 people
    • Frenchville
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Osseo
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Galesville
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Independence
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
      • Independence is located in Trempealeau County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Independence
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,291 people
    • New City ‑ Historic
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
      • New City is located in Trempealeau County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for New City

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

Cemeteries Near Black River Falls ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Black River Falls.

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 Black River Falls - one of the links might be able to help.

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Black River Falls, with the one closest to Black River Falls 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.<2>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Black River Falls had a population of 2,261 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Black River Falls had a population of 3,454 people.

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

  • Sheppard
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Sheppard is located in Jackson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sheppard
  • Irving
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Irving is located in Jackson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Irving
  • Shamrock
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
    • Shamrock is located in Jackson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shamrock
  • Alma Center
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
    • Alma Center is located in Jackson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Alma Center
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 491 people
  • Hatfield
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Merrillan
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
    • Merrillan is located in Jackson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Merrillan
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 522 people
  • Hixton
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
  • Sechlerville
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
  • Lynxville
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
    • Lynxville is located in Crawford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lynxville
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 125 people
  • Millston
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
  • North Branch
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
    • North Branch is located in Jackson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Branch
  • Melrose
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Continue List   (16 more) ...
    • Waterbury
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
      • Waterbury is located in Jackson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Waterbury
    • Cataract
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
      • Cataract is located in Monroe County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cataract
    • Northfield
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Northfield is located in Jackson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Northfield

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Black River Falls ...

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 89 newspapers that have been published in the area around Black River Falls.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Black River Falls. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Black River Falls and those printed in the larger area surrounding Black River Falls.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<3> of Black River Falls.

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 Black River Falls:

Footnotes ...

<1>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.
<2>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 Black River Falls, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<3>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 from Point A (ie- Black River Falls) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.