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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 Drake (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 Drake. 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 northwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most 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.

Drake is located in Mohave County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Mohave County: Coconino, La Paz, Yavapai, San Bernardino (CA), Clark (NV), Lincoln (NV), Kane (UT) & Washington (UT).

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

  • Mohave County     (The home county of Drake)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Drake, with the one closest to Drake listed first.
    • Harris ‑ Historic
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Harris have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harris
      • Harris is located in Mohave County
    • McConnico
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for McConnico
      • McConnico is located in Mohave County
    • Yucca
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
    • Kingman
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
    • Golden Valley
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Oatman
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
    • Oldtrails ‑ Historic
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oldtrails
      • Oldtrails is located in Mohave County
    • Cerbat
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cerbat
      • Cerbat is located in Mohave County
    • Santa Claus ‑ Historic
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Santa Claus
      • Santa Claus is located in Mohave County
    • Franconia
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Franconia have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Franconia
      • Franconia is located in Mohave County
    • Mineral Park ‑ Historic
      (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Mineral Park. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mineral Park
      • Mineral Park is located in Mohave County
    • Grasshopper Junction
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grasshopper Junction
      • Grasshopper Junction is located in Mohave County
    • Cedar
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cedar
      • Cedar is located in Mohave County
      • Cedar has also been known as:
      • Cedarville
  • San Bernardino County (CA)
    • Needles
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Needles
      • Needles is located in San Bernardino County (CA)
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 4,942 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Needles <2>
  • Clark County (NV)

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

Newspapers Published in Drake ...

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 49 newspapers that have been published in the area around Drake.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Drake, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Drake.

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 professional and volunteer 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 Drake:

Cemeteries Near Drake ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Drake.

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

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

  • Yucca Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
  • Mountain View Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Gold Road Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
  • Oatman Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
  • Cerbat Pioneer Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for the Cerbat Pioneer Cemetery. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Cerbat Pioneer Cemetery
  • Cerbat Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for the Cerbat Cemetery. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Cerbat Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2140328 <5>
  • Franconia Cemetery
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
  • Mineral Park Cemetery
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
  • Desert Lawn Cemetery
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Chloride Cemetery
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
  • Hardyville Pioneer Cemetery
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
  • Cedar Cemetery
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for the Cedar Cemetery. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Cedar Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2252717 <5>
  • Continue List   (4 more) ...
    • Ft. Mojave Post Cemetery
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for the Ft. Mojave Post Cemetery. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Ft. Mojave Post Cemetery
      • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2173504 <5>

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.<6>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that in 1895, Drake had railroad service and no post office.

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

  • Yucca
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
  • Kingman
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
  • Stockton
    (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Stockton have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stockton
    • Stockton is located in Mohave County
  • Franconia
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Franconia have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Franconia
    • Franconia is located in Mohave County
  • Mineral Park ‑ Historic
    (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Mineral Park. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mineral Park
    • Mineral Park is located in Mohave County
  • Powell ‑ Historic
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Powell have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Powell
    • Powell is located in Mohave County

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

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

The official website for Mohave County: www.co.mohave.az.us/

The official website for State of Arizona: https://az.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>An 'estimated' location is one where we have been given GPS coordinates, but are unable to verify the accuracy of those coordinates. That said, we have some confidence that we have placed the marker near the actual location. A typical reason for being unable to verify a location is that it might be on private property or maybe historic and gone without an obvious trace.
<4>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 drawn from Point A (ie- Drake) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Drake. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 35.0400, Longitude: -114.1219       In this case, the coordinates for Drake have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>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.
<6>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 Drake, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024