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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 Tiffin (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 Tiffin. 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.

Tiffin is located in Johnson 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 Johnson County: Benton, Cedar, Iowa, Linn, Louisa, Muscatine & Washington.

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

  • Johnson County     (The home county of Tiffin)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Tiffin, with the one closest to Tiffin listed first.
    • Coralville
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Oakdale
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
      • Oakdale is located in Johnson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oakdale
    • North Liberty
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Cosgrove
      (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • University Heights
      (6 miles [9.7 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
    • Oxford
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Cou Falls
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • Iowa City
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Windham
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Shueyville
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
      • Shueyville is located in Johnson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shueyville
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 655 people
    • Swisher
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
    • Frytown
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
  • Benton County
  • Cedar County
  • Iowa County
  • Jones County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Tiffin, with the one closest to Tiffin listed first.
    • Martelle
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Morley
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Fairview
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Keokuk County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Tiffin, with the one closest to Tiffin listed first.
    • Kinross
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
      • Kinross is located in Keokuk County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kinross
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 71 people
    • Keota
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
    • South English
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Harper
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Harper is located in Keokuk County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harper
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 107 people
  • Linn County
  • Louisa County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Tiffin, with the one closest to Tiffin listed first.
    • Gladwin
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Cotter
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
      • Cotter is located in Louisa County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cotter
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 42 people
  • Muscatine County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Tiffin, with the one closest to Tiffin listed first.
    • West Liberty
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Nichols
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
      • Nichols is located in Muscatine County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nichols
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 358 people
    • Atalissa
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
    • Conesville
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Washington County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Tiffin, with the one closest to Tiffin listed first.
    • Kalona
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
      • Kalona is located in Washington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kalona
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,560 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Kalona <1>
    • Riverside
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
    • Wellman
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
    • Nira
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
    • West Chester
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
      • West Chester is located in Washington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West Chester
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 147 people
    • Washington
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
    • Ainsworth
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)

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

Cemeteries Near Tiffin ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Tiffin.

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

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Tiffin, with the one closest to Tiffin 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.<4>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Tiffin had a population of 56 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Tiffin had a population of 4,629 people.

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

  • Coralville
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
  • North Liberty
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
  • Cosgrove
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
  • Oxford
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
  • Iowa City
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Windham
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Sharon Center
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
    • Sharon Center is located in Johnson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sharon Center
  • Shueyville
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
    • Shueyville is located in Johnson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shueyville
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 655 people
  • Homestead
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
  • Graham ‑ Historic
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
    • Graham is located in Johnson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Graham
  • Solon
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
    • 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>
  • Midway ‑ Historic
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Continue List   (16 more) ...

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

Newspapers Published in Tiffin ...

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 Tiffin.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Tiffin, 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 Tiffin.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we like to start with the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These 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 Tiffin:

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>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Tiffin) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<4>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 Tiffin, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.