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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 Herald (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 Herald. 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 southwest 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 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 west 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.

Herald is located in White 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 White County: Edwards, Gallatin, Hamilton, Saline, Wayne, Gibson (IN) & Posey (IN).

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

  • White County     (The home county of Herald)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Herald, with the one closest to Herald listed first.
    • Emma
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Roland
      (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
      • Roland is located in White County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Roland
    • Stokes
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Carmi
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
    • Maunie
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Norris City
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Enfield
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Crossville
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Phillipstown
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Phillipstown is located in White County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Phillipstown
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 40 people
    • Springerton
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Calvin
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
    • Burnt Prairie
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
    • Mill Shoals
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Edwards County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Herald, with the one closest to Herald listed first.
    • Ellery
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
    • Albion
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
    • Red Top
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
    • Browns
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
  • Franklin County
  • Gallatin County
  • Hamilton County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Herald, with the one closest to Herald listed first.
    • Broughton
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
    • Dale
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
    • Bungay
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Jefferson City ‑ Historic
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
      • Jefferson City is located in Hamilton County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jefferson City
    • McLeansboro
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Walpole
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
    • Diamond City
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
      • Diamond City is located in Hamilton County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Diamond City
    • Piopolis
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Flint
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
    • Belle Prairie City
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Belle Prairie City is located in Hamilton County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Belle Prairie City
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 50 people
    • Lovilla
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Macedonia
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
  • Hardin County
  • Pope County
  • Saline County
  • Wayne County
  • Williamson County
    • Hartford
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Hartford is located in Williamson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hartford
  • Posey County (IN)
  • Vanderburgh County (IN)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Herald, with the one closest to Herald listed first.
    • Kasson
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
    • Martin
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
    • Armstrong
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
    • Cypress
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
      • Cypress is located in Vanderburgh County (IN)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cypress
    • Vaughan
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
      • Vaughan is located in Vanderburgh County (IN)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Vaughan
  • Henderson County (KY)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Herald, with the one closest to Herald listed first.
    • Smith Mills
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Smith Mills is located in Henderson County (KY)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Smith Mills
    • Corydon
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Corydon is located in Henderson County (KY)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Corydon
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 685 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Corydon <1>
  • Union County (KY)

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

Cemeteries Near Herald ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Herald.

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

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

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

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

  • Emma
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
  • Elm Grove ‑ Historic
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Elm Grove is located in White County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elm Grove
  • Iron
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
    • Iron is located in White County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Iron
  • Roland
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Roland is located in White County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Roland
  • Cottonwood
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Cottonwood is located in Gallatin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cottonwood
  • New Haven
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
  • Brownsville
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Brownsville is located in White County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brownsville
  • Stokes
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Omaha
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Carmi
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
  • Norris City
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
  • Sacramento
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Sacramento is located in White County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sacramento
  • Continue List   (16 more) ...
    • Gossett
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
      • Gossett is located in White County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gossett
    • Upton
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
      • Upton is located in Posey County (IN)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Upton
    • Elba
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)

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

Newspapers Published in Herald ...

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 122 newspapers that have been published in the area around Herald.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Herald, there are papers which were published within 25 miles [40.2 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Herald.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first visit 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 Herald:

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 Herald, 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 from Point A (ie- Herald) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.