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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 Oelwein (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 Oelwein. 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 northwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals were in the next county to the west. Almost all of the nearby churches and cemeteries were in the county to the north.

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 north 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.

Oelwein is located in Fayette 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 Fayette County: Allamakee, Black Hawk, Bremer, Buchanan, Chickasaw, Clayton, Delaware & Winneshiek.

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

  • Fayette County     (The home county of Oelwein)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Oelwein, with the one closest to Oelwein listed first.
    • Maynard
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Westgate
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Oran
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
      • Oran is located in Fayette County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oran
    • Randalia
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
      • Randalia is located in Fayette County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Randalia
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 60 people
    • Fayette
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Arlington
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
      • Arlington is located in Fayette County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Arlington
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 393 people
    • Maryville
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
    • Donnan
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
    • Wadena
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Hawkeye
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
    • West Union
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
    • Brainard
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
  • Benton County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Oelwein, with the one closest to Oelwein listed first.
    • Spencers Grove
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
    • Mount Auburn
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
      • Mount Auburn is located in Benton County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mount Auburn
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 144 people
  • Black Hawk County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Oelwein, with the one closest to Oelwein listed first.
    • Dunkerton
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
      • Dunkerton is located in Black Hawk County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dunkerton
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 851 people
    • Jesup
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Jesup is located in Black Hawk County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jesup
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,711 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Jesup <1>
    • Dewar
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
    • Edwards ‑ Historic
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Raymond
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Elk Run Heights
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
      • Elk Run Heights is located in Black Hawk County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elk Run Heights
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,135 people
    • Jubilee
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
      • Jubilee is located in Black Hawk County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jubilee
    • Evansdale
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
    • Gilbertville
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
      • Gilbertville is located in Black Hawk County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gilbertville
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 725 people
    • Waterloo
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Janesville
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
    • Cedar City
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
      • Cedar City is located in Black Hawk County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cedar City
  • Bremer County
  • Buchanan County
  • Chickasaw County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Oelwein, with the one closest to Oelwein listed first.
    • Fredericksburg
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Lawler
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Republic
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Clayton County
  • Delaware County
  • Linn County
  • Winneshiek County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Oelwein, with the one closest to Oelwein listed first.
    • Jackson Junction
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
      • Jackson Junction is located in Winneshiek County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jackson Junction
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 54 people
    • Navan
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
    • Festina
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)

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

Cemeteries Near Oelwein ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Oelwein.

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

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Oelwein, with the one closest to Oelwein 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 Oelwein had a population of 830 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Oelwein had a population of 5,789 people.

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

  • Hazleton
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
  • Stanley
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Stanley is located in Buchanan County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stanley
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 120 people
  • Maynard
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
  • Fairbank
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
  • Bryantsburg
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Bryantsburg is located in Buchanan County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bryantsburg
  • Westgate
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Aurora
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Aurora is located in Buchanan County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Aurora
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 162 people
  • Littleton
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Littleton is located in Buchanan County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Littleton
  • Otterville
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
    • Otterville is located in Buchanan County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Otterville
  • Fayette
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Randalia
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
    • Randalia is located in Fayette County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Randalia
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 60 people
  • Dunkerton
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Dunkerton is located in Black Hawk County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dunkerton
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 851 people
  • Continue List   (15 more) ...

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Oelwein ...

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 91 newspapers that have been published in the area around Oelwein.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Oelwein. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Oelwein and those printed in the larger area surrounding Oelwein.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<4> of Oelwein.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first turn to 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 Oelwein:

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 Oelwein, 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' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Oelwein) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.