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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 De Valls Bluff (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 De Valls Bluff. 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 De Valls Bluff ...

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 occur.

Another variation: Devalls Bluff.

  • A typical abbreviation for De Valls Bluff: De Valls Blf. (or less commonly used: De Valls Bluf.)
  • While the name of this city is De Valls Bluff, be aware that it's the common practice of mapmakers to remove the apostrophe from possessive names<1>. So De Valls Bluff may originally have been De Vall's Bluff.

    Sometimes the trailing 's' might be dropped altogether, in which case De Valls Bluff might be written as De Vall Bluff.

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 southeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors and hospitals were in the next county to the east. 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 east 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.

De Valls Bluff is located in Prairie County and is the County Seat.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Prairie County: Arkansas, Lonoke, Monroe, White & Woodruff.

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

  • Prairie County     (The home county of De Valls Bluff)
  • Arkansas County
  • Lee County
    • Moro
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
  • Lonoke County
  • Monroe County
    • The following are listed by their distance from De Valls Bluff, with the one closest to De Valls Bluff listed first.
    • Clarendon
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Roe
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
      • Roe is located in Monroe County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Roe
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 94 people
    • Brinkley
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Fargo
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
      • Fargo is located in Monroe County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fargo
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 79 people
    • Holly Grove
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
      • Holly Grove is located in Monroe County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Holly Grove
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 520 people
    • Monroe
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
    • Lawrenceville
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Pine City
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Palmer
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
  • Saint Francis County
  • White County
    • The following are listed by their distance from De Valls Bluff, with the one closest to De Valls Bluff listed first.
    • Georgetown
      (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
    • Griffithville
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
      • Griffithville is located in White County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Griffithville
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 224 people
    • Walker
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
    • West Point
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
    • Garner
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
    • McRae
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
      • McRae is located in White County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for McRae
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 671 people
  • Woodruff County
    • The following are listed by their distance from De Valls Bluff, with the one closest to De Valls Bluff listed first.
    • Cotton Plant
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Howell
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Howell is located in Woodruff County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Howell
    • Flynn ‑ Historic
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
      • Flynn is located in Woodruff County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Flynn
    • Gregory
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
    • Hunter
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
      • Hunter is located in Woodruff County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hunter
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 93 people
    • Colona
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)

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

Cemeteries Near De Valls Bluff ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of De Valls Bluff.

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 De Valls Bluff - one of the links might be able to help.

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from De Valls Bluff, with the one closest to De Valls Bluff 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.<4>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that De Valls Bluff had a population of 380 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, De Valls Bluff had a population of 548 people.

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

  • Hazen
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
  • Cuneo ‑ Historic
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
    • Cuneo is located in Prairie County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cuneo
  • Clarendon
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Roe
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
    • Roe is located in Monroe County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Roe
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 94 people
  • Screeton
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
  • Keevil
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
    • Keevil is located in Monroe County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Keevil
  • Des Arc
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
  • Barrettsville
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Barrettsville is located in Prairie County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Barrettsville
  • Fairmount
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
  • Carlisle
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
  • Duncan
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Duncan is located in Monroe County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Duncan
  • Brinkley
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Continue List   (15 more) ...
    • Parham ‑ Historic
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
      • Parham is located in Arkansas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Parham
    • Saulsburg
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
      • Saulsburg is located in Monroe County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Saulsburg
    • Casscoe
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
      • Casscoe is located in Arkansas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Casscoe

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

Newspapers Published in De Valls Bluff ...

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 37 newspapers that have been published in the area around De Valls Bluff.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of De Valls Bluff, there are papers which were published within 25 miles [40.2 km]<5>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for De Valls Bluff.

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 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 De Valls Bluff:

Footnotes ...

<1>It's generally believed that possessive apostrophes are removed to prevent confusion on maps where the apostrophe may be confused with a cartographic symbol. While this is generally true, it's not uncommon to find possessive apostrophes in administrative names (such as towns or counties).
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<3>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.
<4>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 De Valls Bluff, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<5>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- De Valls Bluff) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.