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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 Oak Brook (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 Oak Brook. 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 Oak Brook ...

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.

For example, a typical abbreviation for Oak Brook: Oak Brk.

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 doctors and hospitals 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.

Oak Brook is primarily located in DuPage County. A portion of Oak Brook extends into Cook 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 DuPage County: Cook, Kane, Kendall & Will.

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

  • DuPage County     (The home county of Oak Brook)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Oak Brook, with the one closest to Oak Brook listed first.
    • Oak Brook Terrace
      (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
      • Oak Brook Terrace is located in DuPage County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oak Brook Terrace
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,094 people
    • Utopia
      (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
      • Utopia is located in DuPage County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Utopia
    • York Center
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
      • York Center is located in DuPage County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for York Center
    • Clarendon Hills
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
    • Hinsdale
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
    • South Elmhurst
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
      • South Elmhurst is located in DuPage County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Elmhurst
    • Villa Park
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
      • Villa Park is located in DuPage County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Villa Park
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 21,291 people
    • Downers Grove
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Westmont
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Elmhurst
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Lombard
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Willowbrook
      (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Darien
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
  • Cook County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Oak Brook, with the one closest to Oak Brook listed first.
    • Westchester
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Hillside
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Western Springs
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
    • La Grange Park
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Bellwood
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
      • Bellwood is located in Cook County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bellwood
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 18,436 people
      • Bellwood has also been known as:
      • Bellwood village
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Bellwood <1>
    • Berkeley
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • La Grange
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Broadview
      (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
    • Brookfield
      (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
    • Hines
      (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
    • Stone Park
      (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Countryside
      (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Indian Head Park
      (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
      • Indian Head Park is located in Cook County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Indian Head Park
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 3,680 people
  • Kane County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Oak Brook, with the one closest to Oak Brook listed first.
    • Batavia
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
    • Geneva
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
    • Aurora
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
    • Mooseheart
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
    • Saint Charles
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
    • Coleman
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
      • Coleman is located in Kane County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Coleman
    • North Aurora
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
      • North Aurora is located in Kane County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Aurora
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 18,144 people
    • South Elgin
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
      • South Elgin is located in Kane County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Elgin
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 24,646 people
    • Elgin
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Bonnie
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
      • Bonnie is located in Kane County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bonnie
      • Bonnie has also been known as:
      • Bonnie Valley
    • East Dundee
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
    • Campton Hills
      (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
      • Campton Hills is located in Kane County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Campton Hills
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 11,063 people
      • Campton Hills has also been known as:
      • Campton Hills village
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Campton Hills <1>
    • Wasco
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
  • Kendall County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Oak Brook, with the one closest to Oak Brook listed first.
    • Boulder Hill
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Boulder Hill is located in Kendall County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Boulder Hill
    • Montgomery
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
    • Oswego
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
    • Bristol
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Yorkville
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Plattville
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Plattville is located in Kendall County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Plattville
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 257 people
  • Lake County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Oak Brook, with the one closest to Oak Brook listed first.
    • Buffalo Grove
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
    • Aptakisic
      (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
      • Aptakisic is located in Lake County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Aptakisic
    • Braeside
      (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
      • Braeside is located in Lake County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Braeside
    • Deer Park
      (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
    • Deerfield
      (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
    • Riverwoods
      (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
    • Bannockburn
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
    • Kildeer
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
    • Lincolnshire
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
    • Long Grove
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
    • Prairie View
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
      • Prairie View is located in Lake County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Prairie View
    • Ravinia
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
      • Ravinia is located in Lake County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ravinia
    • Highland Park
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
  • McHenry County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Oak Brook, with the one closest to Oak Brook listed first.
    • Algonquin
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Fox River Grove
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Lake-in-the-Hills
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Trout Valley
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Trout Valley is located in McHenry County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Trout Valley
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 508 people
    • Cary
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Cary is located in McHenry County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cary
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 17,929 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Cary <1>
  • Will County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Oak Brook, with the one closest to Oak Brook listed first.
    • Colonial Village
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Colonial Village is located in Will County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Colonial Village
    • Winston Village
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Winston Village is located in Will County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Winston Village
    • Bolingbrook
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Bloomfield Village
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Bloomfield Village is located in Will County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bloomfield Village
    • Goodings Grove
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
      • Goodings Grove is located in Will County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Goodings Grove
    • Romeoville
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Homer Glen
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
      • Homer Glen is located in Will County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Homer Glen
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 24,281 people
      • Homer Glen has also been known as:
      • Homer Glen village
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Homer Glen <1>
    • Lockport
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
    • Normantown
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
      • Normantown is located in Will County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Normantown
    • Plainfield
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Crest Hill
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
    • Fairmont
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
      • Fairmont is located in Will County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fairmont
    • Walker
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
      • Walker is located in Will County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Walker
  • Lake County (IN)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Oak Brook, with the one closest to Oak Brook listed first.
    • Whiting
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Hammond
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Hammond is located in Lake County (IN)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hammond
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 75,342 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Hammond <1>
    • East Chicago
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Hessville
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Hessville is located in Lake County (IN)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hessville
    • Munster
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Munster is located in Lake County (IN)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Munster
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 22,483 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Munster <1>

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

Cemeteries Near Oak Brook ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Oak Brook.

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 Oak Brook - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • Brownswood Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
  • Bronswood Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
  • Zion Evangelical Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
  • Fullersburg Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
  • St. Johns Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
  • Chapel Hill Gardens West Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
  • Immanuel Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
  • Immanuel Lutheran Church Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
  • Queen of Heaven Catholic Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Queen of Heaven Catholic Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Queen of Heaven Catholic Cemetery is a very large cemetery that is located in Hillside.
    • The Queen of Heaven Catholic Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Queen of Heaven Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #107602 <2>
  • Trinity Lutheran Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
  • Boeger Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
  • St. Mary of Gostyn Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Continue List   (389 more) ...
    • Parkholm Cemetery
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Oakridge - Glen Oak Cemetery
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Mt. Carmel Catholic Cemetery
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mt. Carmel Catholic Cemetery
      • To give a relative sense of its location, the Mt. Carmel Catholic Cemetery is a very large cemetery that is located in Hillside.
      • The Mt. Carmel Catholic Cemetery has also been known as:
      • Mt. Carmel Cemetery
      • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #107016 <2>

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>

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

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

  • Utopia
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
    • Utopia is located in DuPage County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Utopia
  • Clarendon Hills
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
  • Hinsdale
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
  • Fullersburg
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Fullersburg is located in DuPage County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fullersburg
  • Downers Grove
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Western Springs
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
  • Hillside
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
  • South Elmhurst
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • South Elmhurst is located in DuPage County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Elmhurst
  • La Grange
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
  • Elmhurst
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
  • Lombard
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
  • Lace
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Lace is located in DuPage County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lace
  • Continue List   (16 more) ...
    • South Addison
      (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
      • South Addison is located in DuPage County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Addison
    • Lisle
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
      • Lisle is located in DuPage County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lisle
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 23,153 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Lisle <1>
    • Riverside
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Oak Brook ...

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 67 newspapers that have been published in the area around Oak Brook.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Oak Brook. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Oak Brook and those printed in the larger area surrounding Oak Brook.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 12 miles [19.3 km]<4> of Oak Brook.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we start with the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These websites either 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 Oak Brook:

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