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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 Wilmington (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 Wilmington. 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.

Wilmington is located in Wabaunsee 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 Wabaunsee County: Geary, Lyon, Morris, Osage, Pottawatomie, Riley & Shawnee.

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

  • Wabaunsee County     (The home county of Wilmington)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Wilmington, with the one closest to Wilmington listed first.
    • Harveyville
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
      • Harveyville is located in Wabaunsee County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harveyville
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 246 people
    • Eskridge
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Maple Hill
      (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
    • Vera
      (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
    • Alma
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
      • Alma is located in Wabaunsee County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Alma
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 776 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Alma <1>
    • Paxico
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
    • McFarland
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
      • McFarland is located in Wabaunsee County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for McFarland
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 250 people
    • Alta Vista
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
  • Coffey County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Wilmington, with the one closest to Wilmington listed first.
    • Lebo
      (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
    • Waverly
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Douglas County
  • Franklin County
    • Pomona
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
  • Lyon County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Wilmington, with the one closest to Wilmington listed first.
    • Miller
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Admire
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Allen
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Allen is located in Lyon County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Allen
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 169 people
    • Reading
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
    • Agnes City ‑ Historic
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
      • Agnes City is located in Lyon County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Agnes City
    • Bushong
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
      • Bushong is located in Lyon County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bushong
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 33 people
    • Lang
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
    • Americus
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
    • Berkeley Hills
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
      • Berkeley Hills is located in Lyon County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Berkeley Hills
    • Neosho Rapids
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
    • Emporia Junction
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Emporia Junction is located in Lyon County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Emporia Junction
    • Emporia
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Merrick
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
  • Morris County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Wilmington, with the one closest to Wilmington listed first.
    • Dunlap
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
      • Dunlap is located in Morris County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dunlap
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 29 people
    • Council Grove
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
  • Osage County
  • Shawnee County

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

Cemeteries Near Wilmington ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Wilmington.

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

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Wilmington, with the one closest to Wilmington 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>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Wilmington had a population of 69 people in 1895 with a post office and no railroad service.

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

  • Harveyville
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Harveyville is located in Wabaunsee County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harveyville
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 246 people
  • Burlingame
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
  • Bradford
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Bradford is located in Wabaunsee County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bradford
  • Miller
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
  • Peterton
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Admire
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
  • Osage City
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Scranton
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
  • Eskridge
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Allen
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Allen is located in Lyon County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Allen
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 169 people
  • Barclay
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
  • Auburn
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
  • Continue List   (15 more) ...
    • Keene
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
      • Keene is located in Wabaunsee County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Keene
    • Reading
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
    • Carbondale
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
      • Carbondale is located in Osage County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Carbondale
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,347 people

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

Newspapers Published in Wilmington ...

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 53 newspapers that have been published in the area around Wilmington.

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

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first turn to 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 Wilmington:

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 '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- Wilmington) 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 Wilmington, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.