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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 Dike (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 Dike. 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 northeast 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 north.

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 north 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.

Dike is located in Grundy 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 Grundy County: Black Hawk, Bremer, Butler, Hardin, Marshall & Tama.

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

  • Grundy County     (The home county of Dike)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Dike, with the one closest to Dike listed first.
    • Fredsville
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Stout
      (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
    • Fern
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Morrison
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
    • Holland
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Reinbeck
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
    • Grundy Center
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Grundy Center is also located in Grundy County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grundy Center
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,670 people
      • Former name for Grundy Center:
      • Grundy Centre
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Grundy Center <1>
    • Buck Grove
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
      • Buck Grove is also located in Grundy County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Buck Grove
    • Wellsburg
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
    • Beaman
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
      • Beaman is also located in Grundy County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Beaman
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 183 people
    • Conrad
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
      • Conrad is also located in Grundy County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Conrad
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,067 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Conrad <1>
  • Benton County
    • Mount Auburn
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Mount Auburn is located in Benton County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mount Auburn
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 144 people
  • Black Hawk County
  • Bremer County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Dike, with the one closest to Dike listed first.
    • Waverly
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Denver
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Bremer
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Klinger
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Knittel
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Plainfield
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
    • Readlyn
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Horton
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
    • Seigel
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Tripoli
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Buchanan County
  • Butler County
  • Franklin County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Dike, with the one closest to Dike listed first.
    • Faulkner
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Geneva
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Hardin County
  • Marshall County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Dike, with the one closest to Dike listed first.
    • Green Mountain
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
    • Liscomb
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Albion
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
  • Tama County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Dike, with the one closest to Dike listed first.
    • Dinsdale
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
    • Lincoln
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
      • Lincoln is located in Tama County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lincoln
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 148 people
    • Gladbrook
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
    • Buckingham
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
      • Buckingham is located in Tama County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Buckingham
    • Traer
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Garwin
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
      • Garwin is located in Tama County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Garwin
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 490 people
    • Dysart
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Clutier
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)

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

Cemeteries Near Dike ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Dike.

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

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

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

  • Elmwood Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
  • St. Marys Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
  • Beaver Grove Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
  • Fairfield Twp. Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
  • Hillcrest Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
  • Lincoln Twp. Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Lincoln Center Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Grant Twp. Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
  • Zion Lutheran Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
  • Fairfield Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
  • Reformed Church of Stout Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
  • Beaver Twp. Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
  • Continue List   (260 more) ...
    • Benson Cemetery
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Rarick Cemetery
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Fairfield Twp. Cemetery
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)

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.<2>

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

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

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Dike ...

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 101 newspapers that have been published in the area around Dike.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Dike. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Dike and those printed in the larger area surrounding Dike.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<3> of Dike.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first turn to 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 Dike:

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>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 Dike, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<3>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Dike) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.