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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 Liberty (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 Liberty. 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.

Liberty is located in Clarke 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 Clarke County: Decatur, Lucas, Madison, Ringgold, Union, Warren & Wayne.

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

  • Clarke County     (The home county of Liberty)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Liberty, with the one closest to Liberty listed first.
    • Woodburn
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
    • Osceola
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Green Bay ‑ Historic
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
    • Weldon
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
    • Lacelle
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Murray
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
      • Murray is located in Clarke County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Murray
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 681 people
    • Hopeville
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Dallas County
  • Decatur County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Liberty, with the one closest to Liberty listed first.
    • Le Roy
      (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
    • Van Wert
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
    • Garden Grove
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
      • Garden Grove is located in Decatur County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Garden Grove
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 200 people
    • Grand River
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
      • Grand River is located in Decatur County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grand River
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 215 people
    • Leon
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
    • Decatur City
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
      • Decatur City is located in Decatur County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Decatur City
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 181 people
  • Lucas County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Liberty, with the one closest to Liberty listed first.
    • Lucas
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Derby
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
      • Derby is located in Lucas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Derby
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 111 people
    • Chariton
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Williamson
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
    • Olmitz
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
      • Olmitz is located in Lucas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Olmitz
    • Russell
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Zero
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
  • Madison County
  • Marion County
  • Polk County
  • Union County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Liberty, with the one closest to Liberty listed first.
    • Lorimor
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
    • Thayer
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
    • Afton
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
  • Warren County
  • Wayne County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Liberty, with the one closest to Liberty listed first.
    • Humeston
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Millerton
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Millerton is located in Wayne County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Millerton
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 42 people

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

Cemeteries Near Liberty ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Liberty.

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

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

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

  • Liberty Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
  • Rhoades Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
  • Rhodes Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
  • Twyford Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
  • Mt. Tabor Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
  • Harrison Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
  • Bethel Chapel Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
  • Green Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
  • Jamison Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
  • Beymer Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
  • Union Chapel Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
  • Walker Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
  • Continue List   (287 more) ...
    • Indian Valley Cemetery
      (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Smith Cemetery
      (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Fremont Cemetery
      (6 miles [9.7 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 Liberty had a population of 67 people in 1895 with a post office and no railroad service.

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

  • Medora
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Medora is located in Warren County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Medora
  • Jamison
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Jamison is located in Clarke County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jamison
  • Jay
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Jay is located in Clarke County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jay
  • New Virginia
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
  • Cool
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Liberty Center
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
  • Osceola
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Woodburn
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
  • Norwood
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
    • Norwood is located in Lucas County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Norwood
  • Truro
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
  • Saint Marys
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
    • Saint Marys is located in Warren County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Saint Marys
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 127 people
  • Lucas
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Continue List   (16 more) ...
    • Saint Charles
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Groveland ‑ Historic
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
      • Groveland is located in Clarke County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Groveland
    • Hanley
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
      • Hanley is located in Madison County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hanley

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

Newspapers Published in Liberty ...

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 53 newspapers that have been published in the area around Liberty.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Liberty, there are papers which were published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Liberty.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we start with 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 Liberty:

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 Liberty, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<3>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or 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- Liberty) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.