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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 Moline (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 Moline. 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 doctors and hospitals 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.

Moline is located in Rock Island 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 Rock Island County: Clinton (IA), Louisa (IA), Muscatine (IA), Scott (IA), Henry, Mercer & Whiteside.

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

  • Rock Island County     (The home county of Moline)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Moline, with the one closest to Moline listed first.
    • East Moline
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
      • East Moline is located in Rock Island County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for East Moline
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 20,473 people
    • Rock Island
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
    • Coal Valley
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Milan
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Silvis
      (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
      • Silvis is located in Rock Island County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Silvis
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 7,473 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Silvis <1>
    • Carbon Cliff
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Hampton
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Hampton is located in Rock Island County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hampton
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,738 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Hampton <1>
    • Coyne Center
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
      • Coyne Center is located in Rock Island County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Coyne Center
    • Oak Grove
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Oak Grove is located in Rock Island County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oak Grove
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 585 people
    • Barstow
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
    • Rapids City
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Andalusia
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Henry County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Moline, with the one closest to Moline listed first.
    • Briar Bluff
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
    • Colona
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
    • Green Rock
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
      • Green Rock is located in Henry County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Green Rock
    • Cleveland
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
      • Cleveland is located in Henry County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cleveland
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 178 people
    • Dayton
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
    • Orion
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Hickory Hills
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
      • Hickory Hills is located in Henry County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hickory Hills
    • Morristown
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Lynn Center
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Osco
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Ophiem
      (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
      • Ophiem is located in Henry County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ophiem
    • Andover
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
  • Knox County
  • Mercer County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Moline, with the one closest to Moline listed first.
    • Preemption
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
    • Sherrard
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
    • Matherville
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
    • Griffin
      (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
    • Marston
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Shale City
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
      • Shale City is located in Mercer County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shale City
    • Gilchrist
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
    • New Windsor
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
    • Viola
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
    • Windsor
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
      • Windsor is located in Mercer County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Windsor
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 760 people
    • Aledo
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Burgess
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
  • Whiteside County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Moline, with the one closest to Moline listed first.
    • Albany
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Erie
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
      • Erie is located in Whiteside County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Erie
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,482 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Erie <1>
    • Newton Corners
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
    • East Clinton
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Fenton
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Pratt ‑ Historic
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Pratt is located in Whiteside County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pratt
    • Denrock
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
      • Denrock is located in Whiteside County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Denrock
    • Fulton
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Cedar County (IA)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Moline, with the one closest to Moline listed first.
    • Sunbury
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Bennett
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
      • Bennett is located in Cedar County (IA)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bennett
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 373 people
    • Lime City
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
  • Clinton County (IA)
  • Muscatine County (IA)
  • Scott County (IA)

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

Cemeteries Near Moline ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Moline.

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

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Moline, with the one closest to Moline 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 Moline had a population of 12,000 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Moline had a population of 41,065 people.

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

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Moline ...

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 184 newspapers that have been published in the area around Moline.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Moline. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Moline and those printed in the larger area surrounding Moline.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 24 miles [38.6 km]<4> of Moline.

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 Moline:

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