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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 Kimballton (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 Kimballton. 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 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.

Kimballton is located in Audubon 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 Audubon County: Adair, Carroll, Cass, Crawford, Guthrie & Shelby.

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

  • Audubon County     (The home county of Kimballton)
  • Carroll County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Kimballton, with the one closest to Kimballton listed first.
    • Manning
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
    • Templeton
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
    • Dedham
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
    • Halbur
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
      • Halbur is located in Carroll County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Halbur
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 252 people
    • Roselle
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
    • Coon Rapids
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Willey
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Cass County
  • Crawford County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Kimballton, with the one closest to Kimballton listed first.
    • Aspinwall
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
    • Astor
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
      • Astor is located in Crawford County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Astor
    • Manilla
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Buck Grove
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
      • Buck Grove is located in Crawford County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Buck Grove
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 43 people
    • Westside
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
    • Arion
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Arion is located in Crawford County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Arion
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 107 people
    • Dow City
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Vail
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
      • Vail is located in Crawford County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Vail
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 413 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Vail <1>
    • Denison
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Sunset Village
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Sunset Village is located in Crawford County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sunset Village
  • Guthrie County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Kimballton, with the one closest to Kimballton listed first.
    • North Branch
      (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
    • Adair
      (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
    • Casey
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
    • Guthrie Center
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
    • Bayard
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Harrison County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Kimballton, with the one closest to Kimballton listed first.
    • Persia
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
      • Persia is located in Harrison County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Persia
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 281 people
    • Yorkshire
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
  • Pottawattamie County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Kimballton, with the one closest to Kimballton listed first.
    • Walnut
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Walnut is located in Pottawattamie County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Walnut
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 768 people
    • Avoca
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Avoca is located in Pottawattamie County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Avoca
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,537 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Avoca <1>
    • Harlan Junction ‑ Historic
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
      • Harlan Junction is located in Pottawattamie County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harlan Junction
    • Hancock
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
      • Hancock is located in Pottawattamie County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hancock
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 196 people
    • Minden
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Minden is located in Pottawattamie County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Minden
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 597 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Minden <1>
    • Oakland
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Neola
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
  • Shelby County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Kimballton, with the one closest to Kimballton listed first.
    • Elk Horn
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
    • Kirkman
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Kirkman is located in Shelby County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kirkman
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 61 people
    • Irwin
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Corley
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
    • Harlan
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
    • Botna
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
    • Westphalia
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
      • Westphalia is located in Shelby County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Westphalia
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 117 people
    • Defiance
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
      • Defiance is located in Shelby County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Defiance
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 260 people
    • Tennant
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
    • Earling
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
      • Earling is located in Shelby County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Earling
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 403 people
    • Shelby
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Panama
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
    • Portsmouth
      (23 miles [37 km] to the west)

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

Cemeteries Near Kimballton ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Kimballton.

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

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Kimballton, with the one closest to Kimballton 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 in 1895, Kimballton had a post office and no railroad service. In 2020, Kimballton had a population of 277 people.

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

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Kimballton ...

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 82 newspapers that have been published in the area around Kimballton.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Kimballton. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Kimballton and those printed in the larger area surrounding Kimballton.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<4> of Kimballton.

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 Kimballton:

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>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.
<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 Kimballton, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<4>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- Kimballton) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.