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 Spiry Place (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 Spiry Place. 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 Spiry Place ...

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.

Although we can't give a definitive list, hopefully the following will give you a feel for the variations that might have occurred.

For example, a typical abbreviation for Spiry Place: Spiry Pl. (or less commonly used: Spiry Plc.)

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.

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.

Spiry Place is located in Owyhee County.

To see how the shape of Idaho's counties have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Owyhee County: Ada, Canyon, Elmore, Twin Falls, Elko (NV), Humboldt (NV) & Malheur (OR).

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

• Owyhee County     (The home county of Spiry Place)
  • The following are listed by their distance from Spiry Place, with the one closest to Spiry Place listed first.
  • Oreana
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oreana
    • Oreana is located in Owyhee County
  • Grand View
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Grand View have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grand View
    • Grand View is located in Owyhee County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 478 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Grand View <2>
  • Empire City ‑ Historic
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Empire City have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Empire City
    • Empire City is located in Owyhee County
  • Silver City
    (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Silver City
    • Silver City is located in Owyhee County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Silver City <2>
  • Murphy
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Murphy have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Murphy
    • Murphy is located in Owyhee County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Murphy <2>
  • De Lamar ‑ Historic
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for De Lamar
    • De Lamar is located in Owyhee County
  • Bruneau
    (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bruneau
    • Bruneau is located in Owyhee County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Bruneau <2>
• Ada County
  • Swan Falls
    (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Swan Falls
    • Swan Falls is located in Ada County

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

Newspapers Published in Spiry Place ...

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 8 newspapers that have been published in the area around Spiry Place.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Spiry Place, there are papers which were published within 18 miles [29 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Spiry Place.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we begin with 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 Spiry Place:

• Websites specific to Idaho
  • Jump to Cyndi's List
  • Jump to Family Search
  • Jump to Genealogy Trails
  • Website for the //history.idaho.gov/idaho-state-archives

• Pages specific to Owyhee County
  • Jump to Cyndi's List
  • Jump to Family Search
  • Jump to Genealogy Trails

• Genealogy information for nearby counties
  • Ada County
    • Jump to Cyndi's List
    • Jump to Family Search
    • Jump to Genealogy Trails

• Cemetery Information and Directories for Idaho
  • Cemetery Junction: Cemeteries of Idaho
  • Cyndi's List
  • Cemeteries of Idaho
  • Cemeteries of Owyhee County
  • FamilySearch.org: Cemeteries of Idaho
  • Find-A-Grave: Home Page
  • Interment.net
  • Cemeteries of Idaho
  • Cemeteries of Owyhee County

Cemeteries Near Spiry Place ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Spiry Place.

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.

If you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our selection of Genealogy Websites (see below).

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

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

• Fairview Cemetery
  (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Fairview Cemetery
  • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2253418 <4>
• Jacob Reuben Graves
  (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Jacob Reuben Graves have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Jacob Reuben Graves
• Pioneer Cemetery
  (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Pioneer Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Pioneer Cemetery
• Stone Cemetery
  (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Stone Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Stone Cemetery
• Reynolds Creek Cemetery
  (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
  • To give a relative sense of its location, the Reynolds Creek Cemetery is located 27 miles [43.5 km]<3> to the north of Nampa.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Reynolds Creek Cemetery
  • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #205838 <4>
• Pleasant Valley Cemetery
  (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Pleasant Valley Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Pleasant Valley Cemetery

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.<5>

While we didn't find Spiry Place in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Spiry Place.

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

• Oreana
  (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oreana
  • Oreana is located in Owyhee County
• Sinker ‑ Historic
  (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Sinker have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sinker
  • Sinker is located in Owyhee County
• Grand View
  (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Grand View have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grand View
  • Grand View is located in Owyhee County
  • Population from the 2020 Census: 478 people
  • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Grand View <2>
• Silver City
  (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Silver City
  • Silver City is located in Owyhee County
  • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Silver City <2>
• De Lamar ‑ Historic
  (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for De Lamar
  • De Lamar is located in Owyhee County
• Reynolds
  (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Reynolds have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Reynolds
  • Reynolds is located in Owyhee County

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

Off-the-Road Links ...

Unfortunately, we don't know of a website for Spiry Place. If you can help, please contact us through our Feedback Page.

The official website for Owyhee County: www.owyheecounty.net/

The official website for State of Idaho: www.state.id.us/