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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 Rockwell (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 Rockwell. 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 southwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals and doctors were in the next county to the west. 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 west 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.

Rockwell is located in Garland County.

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 Garland County: Hot Spring, Montgomery, Perry, Saline & Yell.

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

  • Garland County     (The home county of Rockwell)
  • Clark County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Rockwell, with the one closest to Rockwell listed first.
    • Caddo Valley
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
      • Caddo Valley is located in Clark County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Caddo Valley
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 635 people
    • Alpine
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Alpine is located in Clark County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Alpine
    • Amity
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
      • Amity is located in Clark County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Amity
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 674 people
    • Arkadelphia
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
    • Joan
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Gum Springs
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
      • Gum Springs is located in Clark County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gum Springs
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 110 people
    • Griffithtown
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
  • Grant County
    • Poyen
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
      • Poyen is located in Grant County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Poyen
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 291 people
  • Hot Spring County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Rockwell, with the one closest to Rockwell listed first.
    • Bismarck
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
    • Magnet Cove
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
      • Magnet Cove is located in Hot Spring County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Magnet Cove
      • Estimated population in 2014: 5 people
    • Social Hill
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Bonnerdale
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
    • Saginaw
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Midway
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
      • Midway is located in Hot Spring County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Midway
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 400 people
    • Butterfield
      (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
    • Etta ‑ Historic
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
      • Etta is located in Hot Spring County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Etta
    • Friendship
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
      • Friendship is located in Hot Spring County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Friendship
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 191 people
    • Malvern
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
      • Malvern is located in Hot Spring County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Malvern
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 10,788 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Malvern <1>
    • Rockport
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
      • Rockport is located in Hot Spring County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rockport
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 710 people
    • Donaldson
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Donaldson is located in Hot Spring County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Donaldson
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 300 people
    • Perla
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
      • Perla is located in Hot Spring County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Perla
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 247 people
  • Montgomery County
  • Pike County
  • Saline County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Rockwell, with the one closest to Rockwell listed first.
    • Rubicon
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
    • Fairplay ‑ Historic
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
    • Traskwood
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
    • Haskell
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
    • Kentucky
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
    • Paron
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
      • Paron is located in Saline County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Paron
  • Yell County

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

Cemeteries Near Rockwell ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Rockwell.

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 Rockwell - one of the links might be able to help.

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Rockwell, with the one closest to Rockwell 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.<3>

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

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

  • Hot Springs
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
  • Oma
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Oma is located in Hot Spring County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oma
  • Pearcy
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
  • Bismarck
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
  • De Roche
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
    • De Roche is located in Hot Spring County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for De Roche
  • Sanders ‑ Historic
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Sanders is located in Hot Spring County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sanders
  • Wayside ‑ Historic
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Wayside is located in Hot Spring County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wayside
  • Mountain Valley
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
    • Mountain Valley is located in Garland County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mountain Valley
  • Meyers
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
  • Point Cedar
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Point Cedar is located in Hot Spring County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Point Cedar
  • Cove Creek ‑ Historic
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
    • Cove Creek is located in Hot Spring County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cove Creek
  • Social Hill
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Continue List   (14 more) ...
    • Jessieville
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
    • Elm ‑ Historic
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
      • Elm is located in Clark County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elm
    • Lucky ‑ Historic
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
      • Lucky is located in Montgomery County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lucky

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

Newspapers Published in Rockwell ...

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 87 newspapers that have been published in the area around Rockwell.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Rockwell, there are papers which were published within 24 miles [38.6 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Rockwell.

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 Rockwell:

Footnotes ...

<1>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<2>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.
<3>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 Rockwell, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<4>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 drawn from Point A (ie- Rockwell) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.