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A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
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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 Rye (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 Rye. 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.

Rye is located in Cleveland 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 Cleveland County: Bradley, Calhoun, Dallas, Drew, Grant, Jefferson & Lincoln.

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

  • Cleveland County     (The home county of Rye)
  • Ashley County
  • Bradley County
  • Calhoun County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Rye, with the one closest to Rye listed first.
    • Tinsman
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
      • Tinsman is located in Calhoun County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tinsman
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 42 people
    • Harrell
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Harrell is located in Calhoun County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harrell
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 245 people
    • Thornton
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
      • Thornton is located in Calhoun County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Thornton
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 375 people
    • Hampton
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
  • Dallas County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Rye, with the one closest to Rye listed first.
    • Fordyce
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
    • Ivan
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Ivan is located in Dallas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ivan
  • Desha County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Rye, with the one closest to Rye listed first.
    • Dumas
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
    • Hopedale ‑ Historic
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
      • Hopedale is located in Desha County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hopedale
    • Mitchellville
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
      • Mitchellville is located in Desha County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mitchellville
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 327 people
    • Pickens
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
      • Pickens is located in Desha County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pickens
  • Drew County
  • Jefferson County
  • Lincoln County

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

Cemeteries Near Rye ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Rye.

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

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

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

  • Union Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
  • Union Cemetery #2
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
  • Blankenship Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
  • Searcy Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
  • Prosperity Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
  • Rock Springs Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
  • Carter Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
  • St. Paul Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Seay Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Bethel Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Andrews Chapel Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Torian Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Continue List   (234 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.<3>

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

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

  • Annover ‑ Historic
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
    • Annover is located in Cleveland County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Annover
  • McKinney ‑ Historic
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
    • McKinney is located in Cleveland County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for McKinney
  • Pansy
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
  • Plantersville
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Plantersville is located in Drew County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Plantersville
  • Barkada
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Cornerville
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Orlando
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
  • Saline ‑ Historic
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
    • Saline is located in Bradley County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Saline
  • Wilmar
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
  • Ripley ‑ Historic
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Ripley is located in Cleveland County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ripley
  • Relf's Bluff
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Relf's Bluff is located in Lincoln County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Relf's Bluff
  • Rowell
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
    • Rowell is located in Cleveland County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rowell
  • Continue List   (13 more) ...

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

Newspapers Published in Rye ...

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 40 newspapers that have been published in the area around Rye.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Rye, 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 Rye.

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 Rye:

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 Rye, 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 from Point A (ie- Rye) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.