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 Powder 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 Powder 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 Powder 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 Powder River: Powder 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 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.

Powder River is located in Natrona County.

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 Natrona County: Carbon, Converse, Fremont, Johnson & Washakie.

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

• Natrona County     (The home county of Powder River)
  • The following are listed by their distance from Powder River, with the one closest to Powder River listed first.
  • Hiland
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hiland
    • Hiland is located in Natrona County
  • Vista West
    (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Vista West have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Vista West
    • Vista West is located in Natrona County
  • Bessemer Bend
    (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Bessemer Bend have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bessemer Bend
    • Bessemer Bend is located in Natrona County

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

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we 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 Powder River:

• Websites specific to Wyoming
  • Jump to Cyndi's List
  • Jump to Family Search
  • Jump to Genealogy Trails
  • Website for the Wyoming State Archives

• Pages specific to Natrona County
  • Jump to Cyndi's List
  • Jump to Family Search
  • Jump to Genealogy Trails

• Genealogy information for nearby counties

• Cemetery Information and Directories for Wyoming
  • Cemetery Junction: Cemeteries of Wyoming
  • Cyndi's List
  • Cemeteries of Wyoming
  • Cemeteries of Natrona County
  • FamilySearch.org: Cemeteries of Wyoming
  • Find-A-Grave: Home Page
  • Interment.net
  • Cemeteries of Wyoming
  • Cemeteries of Natrona County

Cemeteries Near Powder River ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Powder 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 Powder River covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

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

• Waltman Cemetery
  (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
  • To give a relative sense of its location, the Waltman Cemetery is located 9 miles [14.5 km]<2> to the east of Powder River.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Waltman Cemetery
  • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2371870 <3>
• Arminto Cemetery
  (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Arminto Cemetery
  • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2366971 <3>
• Hiland Cemetery
  (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
  • To give a relative sense of its location, the Hiland Cemetery is located outside and to the northeast of Hiland.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Hiland Cemetery
  • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2366811 <3>
• Natrona Memorial Gardens
  (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
  • The Natrona Memorial Gardens has also been known as:
  • Memorial Gardens
  • Wyoming Memorial Gardens
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Natrona Memorial Gardens
  • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #84092 <3>

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 Powder River in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Powder River.

• Bessemer ‑ Historic
  (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Bessemer have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bessemer
  • Bessemer is located in Natrona County

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

Off-the-Road Links ...

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

The official website for Natrona County: www.natrona.net/

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