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A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
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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 Centuria (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 Centuria. 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 southwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors were in the next county to the west. 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 west 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.

Centuria is located in Polk County.

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 Polk County: Chisago (MN), Washington (MN), Barron, Burnett, Dunn & Saint Croix.

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

  • Polk County     (The home county of Centuria)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Centuria, with the one closest to Centuria listed first.
    • Balsam Lake
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
      • Balsam Lake is located in Polk County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Balsam Lake
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 978 people
    • Milltown
      (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
      • Milltown is located in Polk County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Milltown
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 875 people
    • Saint Croix Falls
      (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Dresser
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Bunyan
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
    • Luck
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
      • Luck is located in Polk County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Luck
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,051 people
    • Volga ‑ Historic
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Deronda
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Osceola
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Atlas
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
    • Horse Creek
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
    • Amery
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Frederic
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
      • Frederic is located in Polk County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Frederic
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,080 people
  • Barron County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Centuria, with the one closest to Centuria listed first.
    • Turtle Lake
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
    • Almena
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
      • Almena is located in Barron County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Almena
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 638 people
    • Cumberland
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
      • Cumberland is located in Barron County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cumberland
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,097 people
    • Twin Town
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
      • Twin Town is located in Barron County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Twin Town
    • Poskin
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
  • Burnett County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Centuria, with the one closest to Centuria listed first.
    • Randall
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Randall is located in Burnett County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Randall
    • Alpha
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
    • Grantsburg
      (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
    • Siren
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
    • Webster
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
      • Webster is located in Burnett County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Webster
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 620 people
    • Hertel
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Saint Croix County
  • Anoka County (MN)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Centuria, with the one closest to Centuria listed first.
    • Linwood
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
    • City of Columbus
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
      • City of Columbus is located in Anoka County (MN)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for City of Columbus
      • Estimated population in 2015: 4,007 people
  • Chisago County (MN)
  • Isanti County (MN)
  • Pine County (MN)
    • Rock Creek
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Washington County (MN)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Centuria, with the one closest to Centuria listed first.
    • Otisville
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Scandia
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
    • Marine-on-Saint-Croix
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Forest Lake
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
    • Hugo
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Withrow
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Duluth Junction
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Grant
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Grant is located in Washington County (MN)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grant
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 4,107 people
    • Stillwater
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Stillwater is located in Washington County (MN)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stillwater
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 19,694 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Stillwater <1>

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

Cemeteries Near Centuria ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Centuria.

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

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Centuria, with the one closest to Centuria 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.<4>

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

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

  • Balsam Lake
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Balsam Lake is located in Polk County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Balsam Lake
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 978 people
  • Taylors Falls
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
  • Saint Croix Falls
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
  • Franconia
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
  • West Denmark
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
    • West Denmark is located in Polk County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West Denmark
  • Nye
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
    • Nye is located in Polk County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nye
  • Bunyan
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
  • Cushing
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Cushing is located in Polk County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cushing
  • Shafer
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Shafer is located in Chisago County (MN)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shafer
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,144 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Shafer <1>
  • Volga ‑ Historic
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Wolf Creek
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Wolf Creek is located in Polk County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wolf Creek
  • Deronda
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Continue List   (13 more) ...

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Centuria ...

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 114 newspapers that have been published in the area around Centuria.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Centuria. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Centuria and those printed in the larger area surrounding Centuria.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<2> of Centuria.

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 Centuria:

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