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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 Coal Creek (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 Coal Creek. 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 Coal Creek ...

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.

For example, a typical abbreviation for Coal Creek: Coal Crk. (or less commonly used: Coal Ck. or Coal Cr.)

You might be interested in other communities that are also named Coal Creek. More information can be found on our Tidbits & Trivia Page for Coal Creek.

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 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.

Coal Creek is located in Keokuk 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 Keokuk County: Iowa, Jefferson, Mahaska, Poweshiek, Wapello & Washington.

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

  • Keokuk County     (The home county of Coal Creek)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Coal Creek, with the one closest to Coal Creek listed first.
    • Gibson
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
      • Gibson is located in Keokuk County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gibson
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 59 people
    • Thornburg
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • What Cheer
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Keswick
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
    • Aurora
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
      • Aurora is located in Keokuk County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Aurora
    • Delta
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Webster
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
      • Webster is located in Keokuk County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Webster
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 71 people
    • Sigourney
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Hayesville
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Hayesville is located in Keokuk County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hayesville
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 48 people
    • South English
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
    • Harper
      (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
      • Harper is located in Keokuk County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harper
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 107 people
    • Hedrick
      (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
    • Martinsburg
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
      • Martinsburg is located in Keokuk County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Martinsburg
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 107 people
  • Iowa County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Coal Creek, with the one closest to Coal Creek listed first.
    • Ambrose
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Ambrose is located in Iowa County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ambrose
    • Millersburg
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
    • North English
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
    • Parnell
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Ladora
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Williamsburg
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Conroy
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Conroy is located in Iowa County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Conroy
    • Marengo
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Dayton
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
      • Dayton is located in Iowa County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dayton
  • Jasper County
  • Jefferson County
  • Mahaska County
  • Marion County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Coal Creek, with the one closest to Coal Creek listed first.
    • Tracy
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Pella
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
    • Harvey
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
      • Harvey is located in Marion County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harvey
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 243 people
    • Bussey
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Howell ‑ Historic
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
      • Howell is located in Marion County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Howell
  • Monroe County
  • Poweshiek County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Coal Creek, with the one closest to Coal Creek listed first.
    • Tilton
      (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Deep River
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
      • Deep River is located in Poweshiek County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Deep River
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 268 people
    • Montezuma
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Guernsey
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
    • Searsboro
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
    • Brooklyn
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
    • Victor
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
    • Malcom
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Hartwick
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
    • Grinnell
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Sheridan
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
  • Wapello County
  • Washington County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Coal Creek, with the one closest to Coal Creek listed first.
    • Nira
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
    • Rubio
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Rubio is located in Washington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rubio
    • Wellman
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
    • West Chester
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
      • West Chester is located in Washington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West Chester
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 147 people

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

Cemeteries Near Coal Creek ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Coal Creek.

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 Coal Creek - one of the links might be able to help.

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Coal Creek, with the one closest to Coal Creek 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>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Coal Creek had a population of 108 people in 1895 with a post office and no railroad service.

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

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

Newspapers Published in Coal Creek ...

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 Coal Creek.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Coal Creek, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<2>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Coal Creek.

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 helpful 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 Coal Creek:

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' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Coal Creek) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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 Coal Creek, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.