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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 Fairport (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 Fairport. 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 doctors and 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.

Fairport is located in Muscatine 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 Muscatine County: Cedar, Johnson, Louisa, Scott & Rock Island (IL).

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

  • Muscatine County     (The home county of Fairport)
  • Cedar County
  • Clinton County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Fairport, with the one closest to Fairport listed first.
    • Wheatland
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
      • Wheatland is located in Clinton County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wheatland
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 724 people
    • Calamus
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
      • Calamus is located in Clinton County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Calamus
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 397 people
    • Grand Mound
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Johnson County
  • Louisa County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Fairport, with the one closest to Fairport listed first.
    • Grandview
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
      • Grandview is located in Louisa County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grandview
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 519 people
    • Letts
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
    • Wapello
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
    • Oakville
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
    • Fredonia
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
      • Fredonia is located in Louisa County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fredonia
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 220 people
    • Elrick Junction
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Columbus Junction
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Columbus City
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
      • Columbus City is located in Louisa County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Columbus City
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 371 people
    • Gladwin
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
    • Morning Sun
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Cotter
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
      • Cotter is located in Louisa County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cotter
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 42 people
  • Scott County
  • Henderson County (IL)
  • Henry County (IL)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Fairport, with the one closest to Fairport listed first.
    • Orion
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
    • Briar Bluff
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
    • Colona
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
      • Colona is located in Henry County (IL)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Colona
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 5,049 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Colona <1>
    • Green Rock
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
      • Green Rock is located in Henry County (IL)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Green Rock
    • Lynn Center
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
    • Ophiem
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Ophiem is located in Henry County (IL)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ophiem
    • Cleveland
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
      • Cleveland is located in Henry County (IL)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cleveland
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 178 people
    • Dayton
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
  • Mercer County (IL)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Fairport, with the one closest to Fairport listed first.
    • Marston
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Eliza
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
    • Petersville
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
    • Mannon
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
    • Joy
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
    • Aledo
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
      • Aledo is located in Mercer County (IL)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Aledo
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 3,383 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Aledo <1>
    • Preemption
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
    • New Boston
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
    • Matherville
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Shale City
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Shale City is located in Mercer County (IL)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shale City
    • Gilchrist
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Sherrard
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
  • Rock Island County (IL)
  • Warren County (IL)
    • Little York
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)

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

Cemeteries Near Fairport ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Fairport.

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

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

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

  • Fairport Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
  • Illinois City Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
  • Nye Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
  • Krell Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
  • Dodge Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
  • Harker Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
  • Zion Lutheran Church Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
  • Montpelier Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
  • Gilbert Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
  • Jewish Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
  • Melpine Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
  • Buffalo Prairie Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
  • Continue List   (333 more) ...
    • Parr Cemetery
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Reynolds Cemetery
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Friends Cemetery
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)

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 Fairport had a population of 198 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service.

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

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

Newspapers Published in Fairport ...

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 123 newspapers that have been published in the area around Fairport.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Fairport, there are papers which were published within 27 miles [43.5 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Fairport.

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 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 Fairport:

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 Fairport, 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- Fairport) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.