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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 Palo (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 Palo. 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 northeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals were in the next county to the east. 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 east 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.

Palo is located in Linn 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 Linn County: Benton, Buchanan, Cedar, Delaware, Iowa, Johnson & Jones.

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

  • Linn County     (The home county of Palo)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Palo, with the one closest to Palo listed first.
    • Toddville
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Covington
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Hiawatha
      (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
    • Robins
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
      • Robins is located in Linn County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Robins
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 3,570 people
    • Sunset Village
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
      • Sunset Village is located in Linn County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sunset Village
    • Louisa
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
      • Louisa is located in Linn County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Louisa
    • Cedar Hills
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Center Point
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
    • Lafayette
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Grand View Village
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
      • Grand View Village is located in Linn County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grand View Village
    • Cedar Rapids
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Fairfax
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
    • Alburnett
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Benton County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Palo, with the one closest to Palo listed first.
    • Shellsburg
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Atkins
      (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Benton City ‑ Historic
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Benton City is located in Benton County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Benton City
    • Newhall
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Urbana
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Vinton
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Norway
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Spencers Grove
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
    • Watkins
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Van Horne
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
    • Blairstown
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
    • Garrison
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
      • Garrison is located in Benton County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Garrison
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 355 people
    • Mount Auburn
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
      • 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 Palo, with the one closest to Palo listed first.
    • La Porte City
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Jubilee
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Jubilee is located in Black Hawk County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jubilee
  • Buchanan County
  • Cedar County
  • Delaware County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Palo, with the one closest to Palo listed first.
    • Ehler
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
      • Ehler is located in Delaware County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ehler
    • Robinson
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Ryan
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Golden
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Masonville
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
  • Iowa County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Palo, with the one closest to Palo listed first.
    • Amana
      (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
    • Middle Amana
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
    • West Amana
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
    • South Amana
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Marengo
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
    • Dayton
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
      • Dayton is located in Iowa County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dayton
    • Conroy
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
      • Conroy is located in Iowa County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Conroy
    • Williamsburg
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
    • Ladora
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Johnson County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Palo, with the one closest to Palo listed first.
    • Swisher
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
    • Shueyville
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Shueyville is located in Johnson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shueyville
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 655 people
    • Cou Falls
      (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
    • Oxford
      (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
    • Solon
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
      • Solon is located in Johnson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Solon
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,771 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Solon <1>
    • North Liberty
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Tiffin
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
    • Oakdale
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
      • Oakdale is located in Johnson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oakdale
    • Coralville
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
    • Morse
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Cosgrove
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
    • Elmira
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
    • University Heights
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
      • University Heights is located in Johnson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for University Heights
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,025 people
  • Jones County
  • Tama County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Palo, with the one closest to Palo listed first.
    • Dysart
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
    • Elberon
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
    • Vining
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)

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

Cemeteries Near Palo ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Palo.

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

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Palo, with the one closest to Palo 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 Palo had a population of 147 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Palo had a population of 1,075 people.

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

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

Newspapers Published in Palo ...

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 206 newspapers that have been published in the area around Palo.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Palo, there are papers which were published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Palo.

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 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 Palo:

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 Palo, 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 obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Palo) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.