RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Kansas >> Harvey County >> McGraw >> 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 McGraw (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 McGraw. 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 southwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors were in the next county to the west. 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 west 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.

McGraw is located in Harvey 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 Harvey County: Butler, Marion, McPherson, Reno & Sedgwick.

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

  • Harvey County     (The home county of McGraw)
  • Butler County
    • The following are listed by their distance from McGraw, with the one closest to McGraw listed first.
    • Whitewater
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
    • Elbing
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
      • Elbing is located in Butler County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elbing
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 230 people
    • Brainerd
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
    • Potwin
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
    • Benton
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Sunset Acres
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
    • Prairie Village
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
      • Prairie Village is located in Butler County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Prairie Village
    • Hopkins
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
    • Andover
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Andover is located in Butler County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Andover
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 13,672 people
      • Andover has also been known as:
      • Cloud City
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Andover <1>
    • Towanda
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Midian
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
    • De Graff
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
    • Lorena
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Marion County
    • The following are listed by their distance from McGraw, with the one closest to McGraw listed first.
    • Goessel
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
      • Goessel is located in Marion County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Goessel
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 489 people
    • Peabody
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Aulne ‑ Historic
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Hillsboro
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
    • Lehigh
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
    • Burns
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
      • Burns is located in Marion County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Burns
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 204 people
    • Canada
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Waldeck
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
      • Waldeck is located in Marion County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Waldeck
    • Florence
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Oursler
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Eastshore
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
      • Eastshore is located in Marion County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eastshore
    • Marion
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
  • McPherson County
  • Reno County
    • The following are listed by their distance from McGraw, with the one closest to McGraw listed first.
    • Punkin Center ‑ Historic
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
      • Punkin Center is located in Reno County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Punkin Center
    • Buhler
      (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
    • Haven
      (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
    • Saint Joe
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Saint Joe is located in Reno County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Saint Joe
    • Obeeville
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
      • Obeeville is located in Reno County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Obeeville
    • Medora
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
      • Medora is located in Reno County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Medora
    • Yoder
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
    • Elmer
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
      • Elmer is located in Reno County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elmer
    • Hutchinson
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
  • Sedgwick County
    • The following are listed by their distance from McGraw, with the one closest to McGraw listed first.
    • Bentley
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Coleman
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Valley Center
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
    • Park City
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
    • Kechi
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
      • Kechi is located in Sedgwick County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kechi
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,109 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Kechi <1>
    • Wichita Heights
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
    • Bel Aire
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
    • Maize
      (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
      • Maize is located in Sedgwick County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Maize
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 5,267 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Maize <1>
    • Greenwich
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
      • Greenwich is located in Sedgwick County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Greenwich
    • Colwich
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
    • Mount Hope
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
    • Andale
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Cow Town
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
      • Cow Town is located in Sedgwick County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cow Town

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

Cemeteries Near McGraw ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of McGraw.

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

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from McGraw, with the one closest to McGraw 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.<4>

While we didn't find McGraw in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of McGraw.

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

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

Newspapers Published in McGraw ...

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 83 newspapers that have been published in the area around McGraw.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of McGraw, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for McGraw.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first visit the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These professional and volunteer 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 McGraw:

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>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- McGraw) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<4>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 McGraw, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.