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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 Allen (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 Allen. 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 northeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors 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.

Allen is located in Bennett County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Bennett County: Cherry (NE), Jackson, Oglala Lakota & Todd.

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

  • Bennett County     (The home county of Allen)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Allen, with the one closest to Allen listed first.
    • Plenty Bears
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Plenty Bears have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Plenty Bears
      • Plenty Bears is located in Bennett County
      • Estimated population in 2014: 109 people
    • Swett ‑ Historic
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Swett
      • Swett is located in Bennett County
      • Estimated population in 2014: 283 people
    • Martin
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Tuthill
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
    • Vetal
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Vetal
      • Vetal is located in Bennett County
  • Jackson County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Allen, with the one closest to Allen listed first.
    • Potato Creek
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Potato Creek
      • Potato Creek is located in Jackson County
    • Wanblee
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Wanblee have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wanblee
      • Wanblee is located in Jackson County
      • Population from the 2010 Census: 725 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Wanblee <2>
    • Long Valley
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Long Valley have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Long Valley
      • Long Valley is located in Jackson County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Long Valley <2>
  • Oglala Lakota County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Allen, with the one closest to Allen listed first.
    • Batesland
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Batesland have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Batesland
      • Batesland is located in Oglala Lakota County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 113 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Batesland <2>
    • Kyle
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Porcupine
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
    • Wounded Knee
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Denby
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Denby
      • Denby is located in Oglala Lakota County
    • Sharps Corner
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sharps Corner
      • Sharps Corner is located in Oglala Lakota County
      • Estimated population in 2014: 77 people
    • Manderson - White Horse Creek
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Manderson - White Horse Creek. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Manderson - White Horse Creek
      • Manderson - White Horse Creek is located in Oglala Lakota County
    • Manderson
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
  • Cherry County (NE)
    • Merriman
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)

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

Newspapers Published in Allen ...

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 10 newspapers that have been published in the area around Allen.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Allen, there are papers which were published within 27 miles [43.5 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Allen.

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 Allen:

Cemeteries Near Allen ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Allen.

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

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

  • Red Bear Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Red Bear Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Red Bear Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #97436 <5>
  • Peyote Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
  • St. Johns Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
  • Pleasant Hill Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
  • Salaway Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
  • Body of Christ Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
  • St. Mary's Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
  • St. Joseph Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Joseph Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Joseph Cemetery
  • Knight Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Knight Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Knight Cemetery
  • Native American Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Native American Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Native American Cemetery
  • Mediator Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Mediator Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Mediator Cemetery
  • Feather on Head Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Feather on Head Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Feather on Head Cemetery
  • Continue List   (16 more) ...

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>

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

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

  • Irwin
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Irwin have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Irwin
    • Irwin is located in Cherry County (NE)
  • Merriman
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Albany ‑ Historic
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Albany have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Albany
    • Albany is located in Sheridan County (NE)

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

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

The official website for State of South Dakota: sd.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 obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Allen) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Allen. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 43.2777, Longitude: -101.9178    
<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 Allen, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024