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 Breton (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 Breton. 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 hospitals and 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.
Breton is located in Thomas County.
To see how the shape of Kansas' counties may have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.
The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Thomas County: Decatur, Gove, Logan, Rawlins, Sheridan & Sherman.
Below are the counties that are near Breton. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Breton:
- Thomas County (The home county of Breton)
- The following are listed by their distance from Breton, with the one closest to Breton listed first.
- Rexford
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
- Gem
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
- Gem is located in Thomas County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gem
- Population from the 2020 Census: 84 people
- Menlo
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
- Menlo is located in Thomas County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Menlo
- Population from the 2020 Census: 58 people
- Colby
(13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
- Spica
(17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
- Spica is located in Thomas County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spica
- Levant
(20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
- Levant is located in Thomas County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Levant
- Brewster
(30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
- Decatur County
- The following are listed by their distance from Breton, with the one closest to Breton listed first.
- Leoville
(20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
- Leoville is located in Decatur County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Leoville
- Dresden
(24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
- Oberlin
(29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
- Allison ‑ Historic
(30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
- Allison is located in Decatur County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Allison
- Gove County
- The following are listed by their distance from Breton, with the one closest to Breton listed first.
- Grinnell
(24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
- Grinnell is located in Gove County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grinnell
- Population from the 2020 Census: 226 people
- Grinnell has also been known as:
- Grinnette Springs
- Grainfield
(29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
- Logan County
- The following are listed by their distance from Breton, with the one closest to Breton listed first.
- Oakley
(22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
- Monument
(26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
- Monument is located in Logan County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Monument
- Page City
(30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
- Page City is located in Logan County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Page City
- Rawlins County
- The following are listed by their distance from Breton, with the one closest to Breton listed first.
- Atwood
(27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
- Ludell
(28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
- Ludell is located in Rawlins County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ludell
- Sheridan County
- The following are listed by their distance from Breton, with the one closest to Breton listed first.
- Selden
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
- Selden is located in Sheridan County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Selden
- Population from the 2020 Census: 211 people
- Hoxie
(20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
For an expanded list of the communities that are closest to Breton, see our County-by-County Page for Breton.
Cemeteries Near Breton ...
Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Breton.
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 Breton - one of the links might be able to help.
If not found below, our Cemetery List for Breton covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.
The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Breton, with the one closest to Breton listed first.
- Rexford Cemetery
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
- Gem Cemetery
(5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
- Menlo Cemetery
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
- Cumberland Cemetery
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
- St. Patrick Cemetery
(11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
- Hawkeye Cemetery
(11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
- Sacred Heart Cemetery
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
- Beulah Cemetery
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
- Lone Star Cemetery
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
- Mingo Cemetery
(13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
- St. Martins Cemetery
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
- Selden Cemetery
(15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
- Continue List (34 more) ...
- Immanuel Cemetery
(17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
- Achilles Cemetery
(17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
- Lund Church Cemetery
(18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
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 Breton in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Breton.
These communities are listed based on their distance from Breton, with the one closest to Breton listed first.
- Rexford
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
- Gem
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
- Gem is located in Thomas County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gem
- Population from the 2020 Census: 84 people
- Menlo
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
- Menlo is located in Thomas County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Menlo
- Population from the 2020 Census: 58 people
- Colby
(13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
- Mingo
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
- Mingo is located in Thomas County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mingo
- Seguin
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
- Seguin is located in Sheridan County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Seguin
- Selden
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
- Selden is located in Sheridan County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Selden
- Population from the 2020 Census: 211 people
- Spica
(17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
- Spica is located in Thomas County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spica
- Achilles
(17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
- Achilles is located in Rawlins County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Achilles
- Chardon
(19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
- Chardon is located in Rawlins County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chardon
- Levant
(20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
- Levant is located in Thomas County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Levant
- Hoxie
(20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
- Continue List (9 more) ...
- Oakley
(22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
- Grinnell
(24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
- Grinnell is located in Gove County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grinnell
- Population from the 2020 Census: 226 people
- Grinnell has also been known as:
- Grinnette Springs
- Dresden
(24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
We've also created an expanded list of communities that existed in the 1890's and were located in the area around Breton. See our List of 1890's Communities around Breton.
Newspapers Published in Breton ...
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 94 newspapers that have been published in the area around Breton.
Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Breton, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Breton.
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 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 Breton:
- Websites specific to Kansas
- Pages specific to Thomas County
- Genealogy information for nearby counties
- Decatur County
- Gove County
- Logan County
- Rawlins County
- Sheridan County
- Cemetery Information and Directories for Kansas
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 Breton, 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 drawn from Point A (ie- Breton) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'. |