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The Commemorative Quarter for Wyoming





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 Green River (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 Green River. 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 Green River ...

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 have occurred.

For example, a typical abbreviation for Green River: Green Riv.

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.

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 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.

Green River is located in Sweetwater County and is the County Seat.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Sweetwater County: Moffat (CO), Daggett (UT), Summit (UT), Carbon, Fremont, Lincoln, Sublette & Uinta.

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

  • Sweetwater County     (The home county of Green River)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Green River, with the one closest to Green River listed first.
    • James Town
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for James Town
      • James Town is located in Sweetwater County
    • Purple Sage
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Purple Sage
      • Purple Sage is located in Sweetwater County
    • Clearview Acres
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clearview Acres
      • Clearview Acres is located in Sweetwater County
    • Bryan ‑ Historic
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Bryan have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bryan
      • Bryan is located in Sweetwater County
    • Quealy
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Quealy
      • Quealy is located in Sweetwater County
    • North Rock Springs
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Rock Springs
      • North Rock Springs is located in Sweetwater County
    • Rock Springs
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
    • Arrowhead Springs
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Arrowhead Springs
      • Arrowhead Springs is located in Sweetwater County
    • Reliance
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Westvaco ‑ Historic
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Westvaco have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Westvaco
      • Westvaco is located in Sweetwater County
    • Little America
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
    • Sweeney Ranch
      (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Sweeney Ranch have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sweeney Ranch
      • Sweeney Ranch is located in Sweetwater County
    • Granger
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Green River ...

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 21 newspapers that have been published in the area around Green River.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Green River. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Green River and those printed in the larger area surrounding Green River.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 14 miles [22.5 km]<3> of Green River.

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 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 Green River:

Cemeteries Near Green River ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Green River.

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

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

  • Riverview Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
  • Rock Springs Municipal Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
  • Rest Haven Memorial Gardens
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Granger Municipal Cemetery
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)

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.<5>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Green River had a population of 723 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Green River had a population of 11,788 people.

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

  • Peru
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Peru have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Peru
    • Peru is located in Sweetwater County
  • Bryan ‑ Historic
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Bryan have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bryan
    • Bryan is located in Sweetwater County
  • Rock Springs
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
  • Baxter
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Baxter have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Baxter
    • Baxter is located in Sweetwater County
  • Salt Wells
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Salt Wells have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Salt Wells
    • Salt Wells is located in Sweetwater County
  • Granger
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)

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

The official website for Green River: www.cityofgreenriver.org/

The official website for Sweetwater County: www.co.sweet.wy.us/

The official website for State of Wyoming: www.wyo.gov/

Footnotes ...

<1>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.
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<3>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Green River) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Green River. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 41.5181, Longitude: -109.4678    
<4>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.
<5>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 Green River, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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In closing, please keep in mind that we can not guarantee the accuracy or timeliness of the information on this website, so use with care. We encourage you to double-check the information that is critical to you.

If you've found an error or have additional information that you would like to share, please don't hesitate to write: Click here to contact us.

This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024