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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 McDonald (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 McDonald. 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.

McDonald is located in Rawlins 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 Rawlins County: Cheyenne, Decatur, Sherman, Thomas, Dundy (NE), Hitchcock (NE) & Red Willow (NE).

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

  • Rawlins County     (The home county of McDonald)
    • The following are listed by their distance from McDonald, with the one closest to McDonald listed first.
    • Beardsley
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
      • Beardsley is located in Rawlins County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Beardsley
    • Atwood
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
    • Ludell
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
      • Ludell is located in Rawlins County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ludell
  • Cheyenne County
    • The following are listed by their distance from McDonald, with the one closest to McDonald listed first.
    • Bird City
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Wheeler
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
      • Wheeler is located in Cheyenne County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wheeler
    • Saint Francis
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
  • Thomas County
    • The following are listed by their distance from McDonald, with the one closest to McDonald listed first.
    • Brewster
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
    • Levant
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
      • Levant is located in Thomas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Levant
  • Dundy County (NE)
    • The following are listed by their distance from McDonald, with the one closest to McDonald listed first.
    • Benkelman
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Max
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
    • Parks
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
  • Hitchcock County (NE)
    • Stratton
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
      • Stratton is located in Hitchcock County (NE)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stratton
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 325 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Stratton <1>

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

Cemeteries Near McDonald ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of McDonald.

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

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

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

  • Grace Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
  • Evergreen Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Bird City Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
  • Mayflower Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
  • Immaculate Conception Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Greisler Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
  • Blakeman Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
  • St. Johns Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Enterprise Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Sunnyside Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
  • Ilion Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Mt. Calvary Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
  • Continue List   (36 more) ...
    • Barley Cemetery
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
    • St. Cyril Cemetery
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Wheeler Cemetery
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)

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, McDonald had a post office and no railroad service. In 2020, McDonald had a population of 156 people.

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

  • Beardsley
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
    • Beardsley is located in Rawlins County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Beardsley
  • Bird City
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
  • Blakeman
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
    • Blakeman is located in Rawlins County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Blakeman
  • Atwood
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
  • Chardon
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
    • Chardon is located in Rawlins County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chardon
  • Wheeler
    (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
    • Wheeler is located in Cheyenne County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wheeler
  • Benkelman
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
  • Ludell
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
    • Ludell is located in Rawlins County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ludell
  • Max
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
  • Saint Francis
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
  • Stratton
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
    • Stratton is located in Hitchcock County (NE)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stratton
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 325 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Stratton <1>
  • Achilles
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
    • Achilles is located in Rawlins County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Achilles
  • Continue List   (4 more) ...
    • Cornell ‑ Historic
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Cornell is located in Hitchcock County (NE)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cornell
    • Brewster
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
    • Levant
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
      • Levant is located in Thomas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Levant

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of McDonald ...

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 50 newspapers that have been published in the area around McDonald.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of McDonald. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of McDonald and those printed in the larger area surrounding McDonald.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<3> of McDonald.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we begin with the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These 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 McDonald:

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 McDonald, 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' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- McDonald) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.