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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 Sidney (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 Sidney. 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.

Name Variations for Sidney ...

When searching records, keep in mind that names and their spelling can change over time. Our sources include documents like maps, railroad schedules, Travel, Express and Shipping Guides. Many of these documents date from the 1800's and it's common to find spelling differences.

In past government published Postal Guides, Sidney was referred to as Sidney Courthouse.

You might be interested in other communities that are also named Sidney. More information can be found on our Tidbits & Trivia Page for Sidney.

If you have information about these names (such as the reason for the change, date of change, the origin of the name), please Contact Us.

For more information about how community names might have been affected by the Board of Geographic Names (BGN), see our page about Placename Rules.

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 and doctors 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.

Sidney is located in Fremont County and is the County Seat.

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 Fremont County: Mills, Page, Atchison (MO), Cass (NE) & Otoe (NE).

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

  • Fremont County     (The home county of Sidney)
  • Mills County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Sidney, with the one closest to Sidney listed first.
    • Clark
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
      • Clark is located in Mills County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clark
    • Malvern
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
    • Mills
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
    • Hastings
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
      • Hastings is located in Mills County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hastings
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 149 people
    • Pacific Junction
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Glenwood
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
    • Pacific City
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
      • Pacific City is located in Mills County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pacific City
    • Emerson
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Folsom
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
      • Folsom is located in Mills County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Folsom
    • Silver City
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
    • Hentons ‑ Historic
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
      • Hentons is located in Mills County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hentons
    • Mineola
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
    • Henderson
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
  • Montgomery County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Sidney, with the one closest to Sidney listed first.
    • Coburg
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
      • Coburg is located in Montgomery County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Coburg
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 39 people
    • Red Oak
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Page County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Sidney, with the one closest to Sidney listed first.
    • Shenandoah
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
    • Essex
      (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
    • Northboro
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Coin
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
    • Tarkio City ‑ Historic
      (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
      • Tarkio City is located in Page County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tarkio City
    • Nyman
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
    • Yorktown
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
      • Yorktown is located in Page County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Yorktown
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 83 people
    • Blanchard
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
    • College Springs
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
      • College Springs is located in Page County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for College Springs
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 204 people
  • Pottawattamie County
  • Atchison County (MO)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Sidney, with the one closest to Sidney listed first.
    • Farmers City
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Farmers City is located in Atchison County (MO)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Farmers City
    • Watson
      (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
    • Westboro
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
      • Westboro is located in Atchison County (MO)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Westboro
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 126 people
    • Phelps City
      (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
      • Phelps City is located in Atchison County (MO)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Phelps City
    • Rock Port
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
    • Tarkio
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
  • Cass County (NE)
  • Nemaha County (NE)
  • Otoe County (NE)
  • Sarpy County (NE)

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

Cemeteries Near Sidney ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Sidney.

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

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

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

  • Sidney Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
  • Abshire Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
  • Knox Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Benson Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Fremont County Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
  • Grandview Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
  • Rector Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Acord Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
  • Parsley Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
  • Lacy Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Hume Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
  • Buckham Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
  • Continue List   (206 more) ...
    • Lovelady Cemetery
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • Redd Cemetery
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Brown Cemetery
      (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)

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 Sidney had a population of 839 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Sidney had a population of 1,016 people.

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

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Sidney ...

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 158 newspapers that have been published in the area around Sidney.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

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

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 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 Sidney:

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 Sidney, 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- Sidney) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.