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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 Elkader (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 Elkader. 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 Elkader ...

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.

In past government published Postal Guides, Elkader was referred to as Elkader Courthouse.

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

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.

For more information about how community names might have been affected by the Board of Geographic Names (BGN), see our page about Placename Rules.

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 and doctors 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.

Elkader is located in Clayton County and is the County Seat.

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 Elkader. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Elkader:

  • Clayton County     (The home county of Elkader)
  • Allamakee County
  • Buchanan County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Elkader, with the one closest to Elkader listed first.
    • Lamont
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Aurora
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
      • Aurora is located in Buchanan County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Aurora
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 162 people
    • Stanley
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
      • Stanley is located in Buchanan County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stanley
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 120 people
    • Hazleton
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
  • Delaware County
  • Dubuque County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Elkader, with the one closest to Elkader listed first.
    • Luxemburg
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
      • Luxemburg is located in Dubuque County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Luxemburg
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 247 people
    • New Vienna
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Holy Cross
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Holy Cross is located in Dubuque County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Holy Cross
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 370 people
    • Dyersville
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Summit Village Dyersville Park
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Waupeton
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Fayette County
  • Winneshiek County
  • Crawford County (WI)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Elkader, with the one closest to Elkader listed first.
    • Prairie du Chien
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
    • Bridgeport
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Charme
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Charme is located in Crawford County (WI)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Charme
    • Eastman
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Eastman is located in Crawford County (WI)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eastman
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 404 people
    • Wauzeka
      (30 miles [48.3 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
  • Grant County (WI)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Elkader, with the one closest to Elkader listed first.
    • Wyalusing
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Bagley
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
    • Glen Haven
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
    • North Andover
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
    • Patch Grove
      (22 miles [35.4 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
    • Cassville
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
    • Bloomington
      (24 miles [38.6 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
    • Beetown
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
    • Millville
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Mount Hope
      (28 miles [45.1 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

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

Cemeteries Near Elkader ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Elkader.

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

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

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

  • St. Josephs Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
  • Eastside Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
  • Hartmann Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
  • Dohrer Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Meyer Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Colony Catholic Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
  • County Home Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
  • Erhardt Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Cords Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Osborne Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Schmidt Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
  • Meenan Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
  • Continue List   (322 more) ...
    • Union Cemetery
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Clayton Center Cemetery
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Zion Lutheran Cemetery
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)

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>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Elkader had a population of 745 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Elkader had a population of 1,201 people.

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

  • Osborne
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Communia
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Communia is located in Clayton County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Communia
  • Saint Olaf
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
  • Mederville
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
  • Volga
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Volga is located in Clayton County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Volga
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 193 people
  • Littleport
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
  • Farmersburg
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
  • Garnavillo
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
  • Saint Sebald
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Saint Sebald is located in Clayton County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Saint Sebald
  • Elkport
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Elkport is located in Clayton County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elkport
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 36 people
  • Highland
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
    • Highland is located in Clayton County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Highland
  • Ceres
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
    • Ceres is located in Clayton County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ceres
  • Continue List   (14 more) ...

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Elkader ...

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 150 newspapers that have been published in the area around Elkader.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

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

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 either 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 Elkader:

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 Elkader, 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 obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Elkader) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.