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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 Chetopa (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 Chetopa. 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 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 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.

Chetopa is located in Labette 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 Labette County: Cherokee, Crawford, Montgomery, Neosho, Craig (OK) & Nowata (OK).

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

  • Labette County     (The home county of Chetopa)
  • Cherokee County
  • Crawford County
  • Montgomery County
  • Jasper County (MO)
  • Newton County (MO)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Chetopa, with the one closest to Chetopa listed first.
    • Loma Linda
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
      • Loma Linda is located in Newton County (MO)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Loma Linda
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 782 people
    • Seneca
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Seneca is located in Newton County (MO)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Seneca
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,394 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Seneca <1>
    • Grand Falls Plaza
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
      • Grand Falls Plaza is located in Newton County (MO)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grand Falls Plaza
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 112 people
    • Spring City
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
      • Spring City is located in Newton County (MO)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spring City
  • Craig County (OK)
  • Delaware County (OK)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Chetopa, with the one closest to Chetopa listed first.
    • Bernice
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
    • Copeland
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Copeland is located in Delaware County (OK)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Copeland
  • Nowata County (OK)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Chetopa, with the one closest to Chetopa listed first.
    • Sanders
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
    • South Coffeyville
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
      • South Coffeyville is located in Nowata County (OK)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Coffeyville
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 730 people
  • Ottawa County (OK)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Chetopa, with the one closest to Chetopa listed first.
    • Cardin
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
    • Picher ‑ Historic
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
    • Commerce
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
    • North Miami
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
      • North Miami is located in Ottawa County (OK)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Miami
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 370 people
    • Dotyville
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Dotyville is located in Ottawa County (OK)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dotyville
    • Miami
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Hockerville ‑ Historic
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
    • Quapaw
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
    • Narcissa
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
      • Narcissa is located in Ottawa County (OK)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Narcissa
    • Lincolnville
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
    • Ottawa
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Fairland
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
    • Afton
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
      • Afton is located in Ottawa County (OK)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Afton
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,009 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Afton <1>

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

Cemeteries Near Chetopa ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Chetopa.

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

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

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

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 Chetopa had a population of 2,265 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Chetopa had a population of 1,014 people.

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

  • Faulkner
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Bartlett
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Bartlett is located in Labette County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bartlett
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 73 people
  • Mill Rose
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
    • Mill Rose is located in Cherokee County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mill Rose
  • Keelville
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
  • Oswego
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
  • Rogers
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Rogers is located in Craig County (OK)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rogers
  • Hallowell
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Stover
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Stover is located in Labette County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stover
  • Sherwin
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Sherwin is located in Cherokee County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sherwin
  • Labette
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
    • Labette is located in Labette County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Labette
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 66 people
    • Labette has also been known as:
    • Labette City
  • Edna
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
    • Edna is located in Labette County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Edna
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 401 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Edna <1>
  • Altamont
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
  • Continue List   (15 more) ...

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

Newspapers Published in Chetopa ...

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 51 newspapers that have been published in the area around Chetopa.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Chetopa, 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 Chetopa.

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 Chetopa:

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