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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 Clayton (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 Clayton. 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 southeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most 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.

Clayton is located in Clayton County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Clayton County: Allamakee, Buchanan, Delaware, Dubuque, Fayette, Winneshiek, Crawford (WI) & Grant (WI).

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

  • Clayton County     (The home county of Clayton)
  • Allamakee County
  • Delaware County
  • Dubuque County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Clayton, with the one closest to Clayton listed first.
    • Luxemburg
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
      • Luxemburg is located in Dubuque County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Luxemburg
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 247 people
    • Waupeton
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Holy Cross
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
      • Holy Cross is located in Dubuque County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Holy Cross
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 370 people
    • Balltown
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
    • Old Balltown
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
    • New Vienna
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
    • Rickardsville
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
      • Rickardsville is located in Dubuque County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rickardsville
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 179 people
    • Sherrill
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Bankston
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
      • Bankston is located in Dubuque County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bankston
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 27 people
    • Summit Village Dyersville Park
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
    • Dyersville
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
    • Durango
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Fayette County
  • Winneshiek County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Clayton, with the one closest to Clayton listed first.
    • Castalia
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Castalia is located in Winneshiek County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Castalia
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 156 people
    • Frankville
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Crawford County (WI)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Clayton, with the one closest to Clayton listed first.
    • Bridgeport
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Prairie du Chien
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
    • Wauzeka
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
      • Wauzeka is located in Crawford County (WI)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wauzeka
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 733 people
    • Charme
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
      • Charme is located in Crawford County (WI)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Charme
    • Eastman
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
      • Eastman is located in Crawford County (WI)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eastman
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 404 people
    • Boydtown
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Steuben
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Petersburg
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Ferryville
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
      • Ferryville is located in Crawford County (WI)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ferryville
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 173 people
    • Mount Sterling
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
      • Mount Sterling is located in Crawford County (WI)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mount Sterling
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 196 people
  • Grant County (WI)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Clayton, with the one closest to Clayton listed first.
    • Bagley
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
    • Wyalusing
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
    • Glen Haven
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Patch Grove
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
      • Patch Grove is located in Grant County (WI)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Patch Grove
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 192 people
    • Bloomington
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
      • Bloomington is located in Grant County (WI)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bloomington
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 702 people
    • North Andover
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Millville
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Mount Hope
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
      • Mount Hope is located in Grant County (WI)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mount Hope
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 216 people
    • Beetown
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Cassville
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Mount Ida
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
    • Werley
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Werley is located in Grant County (WI)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Werley
    • Woodman
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
      • Woodman is located in Grant County (WI)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Woodman
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 129 people

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

Cemeteries Near Clayton ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Clayton.

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

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Clayton, with the one closest to Clayton 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 Clayton had a population of 398 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Clayton had a population of 39 people.

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

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Clayton ...

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 125 newspapers that have been published in the area around Clayton.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Clayton. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Clayton and those printed in the larger area surrounding Clayton.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<2> of Clayton.

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 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 Clayton:

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>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Clayton) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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 Clayton, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.