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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 Frytown (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 Frytown. 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 southwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors and hospitals were in the next county to the west. 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 west 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.

Frytown is located in Johnson 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 Johnson County: Benton, Cedar, Iowa, Linn, Louisa, Muscatine & Washington.

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

  • Johnson County     (The home county of Frytown)
  • Benton County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Frytown, with the one closest to Frytown listed first.
    • Norway
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Watkins
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Blairstown
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Atkins
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
  • Cedar County
  • Henry County
    • Wayland
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
  • Iowa County
  • Jefferson County
  • Keokuk County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Frytown, with the one closest to Frytown listed first.
    • Kinross
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Kinross is located in Keokuk County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kinross
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 71 people
    • Keota
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
    • South English
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Harper
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Harper is located in Keokuk County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harper
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 107 people
    • Talleyrand
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Webster
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
      • Webster is located in Keokuk County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Webster
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 71 people
    • Aurora
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
      • Aurora is located in Keokuk County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Aurora
    • Keswick
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
    • Richland
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Sigourney
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Linn County
  • Louisa County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Frytown, with the one closest to Frytown listed first.
    • Gladwin
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Cotter
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
      • Cotter is located in Louisa County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cotter
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 42 people
    • Columbus Junction
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Columbus City
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Columbus City is located in Louisa County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Columbus City
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 371 people
    • Fredonia
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Fredonia is located in Louisa County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fredonia
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 220 people
    • Wyman
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Letts
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Muscatine County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Frytown, with the one closest to Frytown listed first.
    • Nichols
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
      • Nichols is located in Muscatine County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nichols
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 358 people
    • Conesville
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
    • West Liberty
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
    • Atalissa
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
  • Poweshiek County
    • Victor
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
  • Washington County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Frytown, with the one closest to Frytown listed first.
    • Kalona
      (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
      • Kalona is located in Washington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kalona
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,560 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Kalona <1>
    • Wellman
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Riverside
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Nira
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
    • West Chester
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
      • West Chester is located in Washington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West Chester
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 147 people
    • Washington
      (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
    • Ainsworth
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Havre
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
    • Crawfordsville
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Rubio
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Rubio is located in Washington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rubio
    • Brighton
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
    • Coppock
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
      • Coppock is located in Washington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Coppock
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 48 people

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

Cemeteries Near Frytown ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Frytown.

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

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

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

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

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

  • Amish
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Sharon Center
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Sharon Center is located in Johnson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sharon Center
  • Windham
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Cosgrove
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
  • Kalona
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Kalona is located in Washington County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kalona
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,560 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Kalona <1>
  • Green Center
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Green Center is located in Iowa County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Green Center
  • Wellman
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Richmond
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
    • Richmond is located in Washington County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Richmond
  • Holbrook
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
    • Holbrook is located in Iowa County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Holbrook
  • Oxford
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
  • Riverside
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Tiffin
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
  • Continue List   (15 more) ...
    • Iowa Junction ‑ Historic
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Iowa Junction is located in Washington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Iowa Junction
    • Iowa City
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Coralville
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)

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

Newspapers Published in Frytown ...

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 81 newspapers that have been published in the area around Frytown.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Frytown, 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 Frytown.

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 Frytown:

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 things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Frytown) 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 Frytown, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.