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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 Swedesburg (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 Swedesburg. 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.

Swedesburg is located in Henry 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 Henry County: Des Moines, Jefferson, Lee, Louisa, Van Buren & Washington.

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

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

Cemeteries Near Swedesburg ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Swedesburg.

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

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

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

  • Swedesburg Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
  • Tallman Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
  • Friends Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
  • North Wayne Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
  • Finley Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
  • Asbury Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
  • Old Finley Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
  • Traxler Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Hickory Grove Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
  • Center Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
  • Baptist Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
  • Oak Grove Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
  • Continue List   (472 more) ...
    • Richie Cemetery
      (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Beauchamp Cemetery
      (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Sugar Creek Cemetery
      (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)

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 Swedesburg had a population of 158 people in 1895 with a post office and no railroad service.

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

  • Olds
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
  • Trenton
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Trenton is located in Henry County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Trenton
  • Traxler ‑ Historic
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Traxler is located in Henry County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Traxler
  • Winfield
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
  • Noble
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
    • Noble is located in Washington County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Noble
  • Wayland
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Wyman
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Crawfordsville
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
  • Mount Union
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
    • Mount Union is located in Henry County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mount Union
    • Estimated population in 2017: 107 people
  • Mount Pleasant
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
  • Coppock
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Coppock is located in Washington County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Coppock
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 48 people
  • Merrimac
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
    • Merrimac is located in Jefferson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Merrimac
  • Continue List   (15 more) ...
    • Rome
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Rome is located in Henry County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rome
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 117 people
    • Havre
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
    • Marsh
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
      • Marsh is located in Louisa County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Marsh

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

Newspapers Published in Swedesburg ...

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 65 newspapers that have been published in the area around Swedesburg.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Swedesburg, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Swedesburg.

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 Swedesburg:

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