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A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Illinois >> Mercer County >> Eliza >> Genealogy HelperIndex...

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 Eliza (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 Eliza. 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 and doctors 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.

Eliza is located in Mercer County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Mercer County: Des Moines (IA), Louisa (IA), Henderson, Henry, Knox, Rock Island & Warren.

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

  • Mercer County     (The home county of Eliza)
  • Henderson County
  • Henry County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Eliza, with the one closest to Eliza listed first.
    • Ophiem
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
      • Ophiem is located in Henry County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ophiem
    • Orion
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
  • Rock Island County
  • Warren County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Eliza, with the one closest to Eliza listed first.
    • Little York
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Eleanor
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Gerlaw
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Shanghai City
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Shanghai City is located in Warren County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shanghai City
  • Cedar County (IA)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Eliza, with the one closest to Eliza listed first.
    • Lime City
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
    • Sunbury
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
    • Rochester
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
    • Centerdale
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Downey
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Downey is located in Cedar County (IA)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Downey
    • Springdale
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Bennett
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
      • Bennett is located in Cedar County (IA)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bennett
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 373 people
  • Des Moines County (IA)
  • Henry County (IA)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Eliza, with the one closest to Eliza listed first.
    • Mount Union
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
      • Mount Union is located in Henry County (IA)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mount Union
      • Estimated population in 2017: 107 people
    • Winfield
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Johnson County (IA)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Eliza, with the one closest to Eliza listed first.
    • Lone Tree
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
    • River Junction
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Louisa County (IA)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Eliza, with the one closest to Eliza listed first.
    • Grandview
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
      • Grandview is located in Louisa County (IA)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grandview
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 519 people
    • Oakville
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
    • Wapello
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Letts
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
    • Elrick Junction
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Fredonia
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
      • Fredonia is located in Louisa County (IA)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fredonia
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 220 people
    • Morning Sun
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Columbus Junction
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
    • Columbus City
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
      • Columbus City is located in Louisa County (IA)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Columbus City
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 371 people
    • Cotter
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
      • Cotter is located in Louisa County (IA)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cotter
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 42 people
    • Gladwin
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
    • Wyman
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
  • Muscatine County (IA)
  • Scott County (IA)
  • Washington County (IA)

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

Cemeteries Near Eliza ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Eliza.

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

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Eliza, with the one closest to Eliza 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 Eliza had a population of 48 people in 1895 with a post office and no railroad service.

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

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

Newspapers Published in Eliza ...

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 40 newspapers that have been published in the area around Eliza.

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

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 Eliza:

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 Eliza, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<4>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a '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- Eliza) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.