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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 Kempster (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 Kempster. 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.

Kempster is located in Langlade 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 Langlade County: Forest, Lincoln, Marathon, Menominee, Oconto, Oneida & Shawano.

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

  • Langlade County     (The home county of Kempster)
  • Forest County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Kempster, with the one closest to Kempster listed first.
    • Mole Lake
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Crandon
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
    • Atkins
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
    • Padus
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Hiles
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
      • Hiles is located in Forest County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hiles
    • Laona
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Lincoln County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Kempster, with the one closest to Kempster listed first.
    • Dudley
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
    • Gleason
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
    • Dutch Corners ‑ Historic
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
    • Jeffris
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
      • Jeffris is located in Lincoln County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jeffris
    • Harrison
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Irma
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
    • Merrill
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
      • Merrill is located in Lincoln County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Merrill
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 8,990 people
    • Tomahawk
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Marathon County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Kempster, with the one closest to Kempster listed first.
    • Glandon
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
    • Sunset
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Nutterville
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Norrie
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
      • Norrie is located in Marathon County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Norrie
    • Hatley
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
    • Brokaw
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Brokaw is located in Marathon County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brokaw
      • Estimated population in 2018: 245 people
    • Ringle
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
  • Menominee County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Kempster, with the one closest to Kempster listed first.
    • Zoar
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
    • Neopit
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
      • Neopit is located in Menominee County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Neopit
  • Oconto County
  • Oneida County
  • Shawano County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Kempster, with the one closest to Kempster listed first.
    • Aniwa
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
      • Aniwa is located in Shawano County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Aniwa
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 252 people
    • Mattoon
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
      • Mattoon is located in Shawano County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mattoon
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 412 people
    • Birnamwood
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
    • Almon
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
    • Regina
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
    • Eland
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
    • Bowler
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
      • Bowler is located in Shawano County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bowler
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 286 people

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

Cemeteries Near Kempster ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Kempster.

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

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Kempster, with the one closest to Kempster 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 in 1895, Kempster had railroad service and no post office.

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

  • Koepenick
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Koepenick is located in Langlade County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Koepenick
  • Deerbrook
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
  • Summit Lake
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Summit Lake is located in Langlade County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Summit Lake
  • Bryant
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
  • Antigo
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
  • Elcho
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
  • Post Lake
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
  • Pelican Lake
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
  • Dudley
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
  • Elmhurst
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
    • Elmhurst is located in Langlade County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elmhurst
  • Elton
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Elton is located in Langlade County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elton
  • Lily
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
  • Continue List   (15 more) ...
    • Bloomville
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
      • Bloomville is located in Lincoln County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bloomville
    • Phlox
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
    • Hogarty
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
      • Hogarty is located in Marathon County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hogarty

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

Newspapers Published in Kempster ...

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 48 newspapers that have been published in the area around Kempster.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Kempster, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Kempster.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we like to start 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 Kempster:

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 Kempster, 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' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Kempster) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.