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A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
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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 Draffin (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 Draffin. 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.

Draffin is located in Pike County.

To see how the shape of Kentucky's counties may have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Pike County: Floyd, Knott, Letcher, Martin, Buchanan (VA), Dickenson (VA), Wise (VA) & Mingo (WV).

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

  • Pike County     (The home county of Draffin)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Draffin, with the one closest to Draffin listed first.
    • Belcher
      (Less than 2 miles to the east)
      • Belcher is located in Pike County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Belcher
    • Marrowbone
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Cedarville
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Cedarville is located in Pike County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cedarville
    • Elkhorn City
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Rockhouse
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
      • Rockhouse is located in Pike County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rockhouse
    • Lookout
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
      • Lookout is located in Pike County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lookout
    • Ashcamp
      (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
      • Ashcamp is located in Pike County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ashcamp
    • Hellier
      (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Lick Creek
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Lick Creek is located in Pike County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lick Creek
    • Garden Village
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Garden Village is located in Pike County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Garden Village
    • Phyllis
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
      • Phyllis is located in Pike County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Phyllis
    • Shelbiana
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Floyd County
  • Knott County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Draffin, with the one closest to Draffin listed first.
    • Kite
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
      • Kite is located in Knott County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kite
    • Raven
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
      • Raven is located in Knott County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Raven
    • Mousie
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
    • Pippa Passes
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
      • Pippa Passes is located in Knott County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pippa Passes
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 606 people
    • Pine Top
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
    • Garner
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
      • Garner is located in Knott County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Garner
    • Leburn
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
  • Letcher County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Draffin, with the one closest to Draffin listed first.
    • Burdine
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Burdine is located in Letcher County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Burdine
    • Jenkins
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
    • McRoberts
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Cromona
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
      • Cromona is located in Letcher County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cromona
    • Fleming - Neon
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
      • Fleming - Neon is located in Letcher County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fleming - Neon
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 610 people
    • Hemphill
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Neon
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Tolliver Town
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Seco
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Seco is located in Letcher County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Seco
    • Whitaker
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Deane
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
      • Deane is located in Letcher County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Deane
    • Millstone
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
      • Millstone is located in Letcher County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Millstone
  • Buchanan County (VA)
  • Dickenson County (VA)
  • Norton City (VA)
    • Norton
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Norton is located in Norton City (VA)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Norton
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 3,985 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Norton <1>
  • Russell County (VA)
  • Wise County (VA)
  • McDowell County (WV)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Draffin, with the one closest to Draffin listed first.
    • Paynesville
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
      • Paynesville is located in McDowell County (WV)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Paynesville
    • Jackson Flats
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
    • Panther
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
    • Wyoming City
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Wyoming City is located in McDowell County (WV)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wyoming City
  • Mingo County (WV)

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

Cemeteries Near Draffin ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Draffin.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Newspapers Published in Draffin ...

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 23 newspapers that have been published in the area around Draffin.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Draffin, there are papers which were published within 13 miles [20.9 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Draffin.

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 helpful 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 Draffin:

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 Draffin, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<4>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- Draffin) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.