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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 Roaches (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 Roaches. 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 southeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals were in the next county to the east. 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 east 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.

Roaches is located in Jefferson 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 Jefferson County: Franklin, Hamilton, Marion, Perry, Washington & Wayne.

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

  • Jefferson County     (The home county of Roaches)
  • Clinton County
  • Franklin County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Roaches, with the one closest to Roaches listed first.
    • Sesser
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
    • Whittington
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
    • Ewing
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Rend City
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
      • Rend City is located in Franklin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rend City
    • Valier
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
    • Frisco
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Taylor Hill
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Coello
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
    • Benton
      (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
    • North City
      (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
      • North City is located in Franklin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North City
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 566 people
    • West City
      (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
      • West City is located in Franklin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West City
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 626 people
    • Buckner
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
    • Christopher
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
  • Hamilton County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Roaches, with the one closest to Roaches listed first.
    • Dahlgren
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
    • Lovilla
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Macedonia
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Belle Prairie City
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
      • Belle Prairie City is located in Hamilton County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Belle Prairie City
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 50 people
    • Piopolis
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
    • Flint
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Jackson County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Roaches, with the one closest to Roaches listed first.
    • Dowell
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
    • Elkville
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
  • Marion County
  • Perry County
  • Randolph County
  • Washington County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Roaches, with the one closest to Roaches listed first.
    • Richview
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Ashley
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Radom
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Radom is located in Washington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Radom
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 209 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Radom <1>
    • Irvington
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Baldwin Heights
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Baldwin Heights is located in Washington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Baldwin Heights
    • Du Bois
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Du Bois is located in Washington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Du Bois
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 189 people
    • Wamac
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
    • Hoyleton
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Posen
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
      • Posen is located in Washington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Posen
    • Nashville
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
    • New Minden
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Addieville
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
    • Oakdale
      (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
  • Wayne County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Roaches, with the one closest to Roaches listed first.
    • Keenes
      (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
    • Wayne City
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
    • Sims
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)

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

Cemeteries Near Roaches ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Roaches.

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

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

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

  • Randolph Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
  • Mt. Zion Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Memorial Garden Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
  • Slade Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
  • Reynolds Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
  • Oddfellows Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
  • Mt. Catherine Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
  • Taylor Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Locust Grove Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
  • Brick Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
  • Minson Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
  • Quinn Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
  • Continue List   (431 more) ...
    • Rightnower Cemetery
      (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Gaston Cemetery
      (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Piskey Cemetery
      (5 miles [8 km] to the north)

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 in 1895, Roaches had railroad service and no post office.

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

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

Newspapers Published in Roaches ...

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 132 newspapers that have been published in the area around Roaches.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Roaches, there are papers which were published within 26 miles [41.8 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Roaches.

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 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 Roaches:

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