RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Indiana >> Hancock County >> Maxwell >> Genealogy HelperIndex...

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 Maxwell (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 Maxwell. 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 northeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors 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.

Maxwell is located in Hancock County.

To see how the shape of Indiana's counties may have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Hancock County: Hamilton, Henry, Madison, Marion, Rush & Shelby.

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

  • Hancock County     (The home county of Maxwell)
  • Boone County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Maxwell, with the one closest to Maxwell listed first.
    • Eagle Village
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
      • Eagle Village is located in Boone County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eagle Village
    • Zionsville
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
  • Decatur County
  • Delaware County
  • Fayette County
    • Fairview
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Fairview is located in Fayette County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fairview
  • Hamilton County
  • Henry County
  • Johnson County
  • Kosciusko County
  • Madison County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Maxwell, with the one closest to Maxwell listed first.
    • Ingalls
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • Pendleton
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
    • Markleville
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Lapel
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
      • Lapel is located in Madison County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lapel
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,412 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Lapel <1>
    • Fishersburg
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
      • Fishersburg is located in Madison County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fishersburg
    • Edgewood Village
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
      • Edgewood Village is located in Madison County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Edgewood Village
    • Anderson
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
    • Edgewood
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
      • Edgewood is located in Madison County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Edgewood
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,850 people
    • River Forest
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
      • River Forest is located in Madison County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for River Forest
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 22 people
    • Western Village
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
      • Western Village is located in Madison County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Western Village
    • Country Club Heights
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
      • Country Club Heights is located in Madison County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Country Club Heights
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 77 people
    • Glyn Ellen
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
    • Woodlawn Heights
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
      • Woodlawn Heights is located in Madison County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Woodlawn Heights
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 73 people
  • Marion County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Maxwell, with the one closest to Maxwell listed first.
    • Cumberland
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Lawrence
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
    • Castleton
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
    • Warren Park
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
      • Warren Park is located in Marion County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Warren Park
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,574 people
    • Charlesmac Village
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Charlesmac Village is located in Marion County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Charlesmac Village
    • Acton
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Beech Grove
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Meridian Hills
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
      • Meridian Hills is located in Marion County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Meridian Hills
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,718 people
    • North Crows Nest
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
      • North Crows Nest is located in Marion County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Crows Nest
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 47 people
    • Williams Creek
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
      • Williams Creek is located in Marion County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Williams Creek
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 429 people
    • Crows Nest
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
      • Crows Nest is located in Marion County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crows Nest
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 75 people
    • Indianapolis
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
    • Rocky Ripple
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
      • Rocky Ripple is located in Marion County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rocky Ripple
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 653 people
  • Rush County
  • Shelby County
  • Tipton County
  • Wayne County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Maxwell, with the one closest to Maxwell listed first.
    • Dublin
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
    • Mount Auburn
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
      • Mount Auburn is located in Wayne County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mount Auburn
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 104 people

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

Cemeteries Near Maxwell ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Maxwell.

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

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

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

  • Alford Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
  • Barrett Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
  • Cooper Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
  • Reeves Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Pratt Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
  • Chappell Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
  • Mt. Carmel Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
  • Sugar Creek Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Olvey Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Baptist - Braddock Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
  • Willet Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Cook Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
  • Continue List   (416 more) ...

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 Maxwell had a population of 173 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service.

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

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

Newspapers Published in Maxwell ...

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 105 newspapers that have been published in the area around Maxwell.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Maxwell, there are papers which were published within 14 miles [22.5 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Maxwell.

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 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 Maxwell:

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