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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 Piasa (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 Piasa. 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.

Piasa is located in Macoupin 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 Macoupin County: Greene, Jersey, Madison, Montgomery, Morgan & Sangamon.

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

  • Macoupin County     (The home county of Piasa)
  • Bond County
  • Calhoun County
  • Greene County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Piasa, with the one closest to Piasa listed first.
    • Rockbridge
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Kane
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
    • Greenfield
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
    • Mid City ‑ Historic
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Mid City is located in Greene County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mid City
    • Carrollton
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Wrights
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Woody
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Belltown
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
    • Eldred
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
    • White Hall
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
    • East Hardin
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
      • East Hardin is located in Greene County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for East Hardin
    • Walkerville
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Jersey County
  • Madison County
  • Montgomery County
  • Saint Charles County (MO)
  • Saint Louis City (MO)
  • Saint Louis County (MO)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Piasa, with the one closest to Piasa listed first.
    • Black Jack
      (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
      • Black Jack is located in Saint Louis County (MO)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Black Jack
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 6,921 people
    • Spanish Lake
      (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
      • Spanish Lake is located in Saint Louis County (MO)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spanish Lake
    • Florissant
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Bellefontaine Neighbors
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
      • Bellefontaine Neighbors is located in Saint Louis County (MO)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bellefontaine Neighbors
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 10,297 people
    • Castle Point
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
      • Castle Point is located in Saint Louis County (MO)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Castle Point
    • Glasgow Village
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
      • Glasgow Village is located in Saint Louis County (MO)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Glasgow Village
    • Calverton Park
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
      • Calverton Park is located in Saint Louis County (MO)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Calverton Park
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,267 people
    • Dellwood
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
      • Dellwood is located in Saint Louis County (MO)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dellwood
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 4,994 people
    • Ferguson
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
      • Ferguson is located in Saint Louis County (MO)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ferguson
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 20,457 people
    • Moline Acres
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
      • Moline Acres is located in Saint Louis County (MO)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Moline Acres
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,339 people
    • Riverview
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
      • Riverview is located in Saint Louis County (MO)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Riverview
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,821 people
    • Berkeley
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)

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

Cemeteries Near Piasa ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Piasa.

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

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

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

  • Piasa Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
  • Trible Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
  • Asbury Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Asbury Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Miles Station Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
  • Chapman Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
  • Eldridge Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
  • St. Alphonsus Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Medora Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
  • St. Denis Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
  • Shipman Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
  • Roads Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
  • Continue List   (428 more) ...
    • Longwill Cemetery
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Moore Cemetery
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Baptist Church Cemetery
      (5 miles [8 km] to the south)

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.<2>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Piasa had a population of 150 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service.

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

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

Newspapers Published in Piasa ...

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 129 newspapers that have been published in the area around Piasa.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Piasa, there are papers which were published within 23 miles [37 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Piasa.

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 professional and volunteer 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 Piasa:

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>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 Piasa, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<3>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- Piasa) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.