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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 Barry (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 Barry. 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 and hospitals 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.

Barry is located in Big Stone County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Big Stone County: Lac qui Parle, Stevens, Swift, Traverse, Grant (SD) & Roberts (SD).

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

  • Big Stone County     (The home county of Barry)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Barry, with the one closest to Barry listed first.
    • Graceville
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Beardsley
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Clinton
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Johnson
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
    • Ortonville
      (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
    • Odessa
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
    • Correll
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Correll is located in Big Stone County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Correll
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 31 people
  • Grant County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Barry, with the one closest to Barry listed first.
    • Herman
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Norcross
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
      • Norcross is located in Grant County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Norcross
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 71 people
  • Stevens County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Barry, with the one closest to Barry listed first.
    • Chokio
      (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
    • Alberta
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
    • Donnelly
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
      • Donnelly is located in Stevens County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Donnelly
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 233 people
  • Traverse County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Barry, with the one closest to Barry listed first.
    • Collis
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Dumont
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
      • Dumont is located in Traverse County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dumont
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 87 people
    • Browns Valley
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
      • Browns Valley is located in Traverse County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Browns Valley
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 522 people
    • Wheaton
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
    • Charlesville
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Grant County (SD)
  • Roberts County (SD)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Barry, with the one closest to Barry listed first.
    • Shady Beach
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
    • South Dakota Park
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
      • South Dakota Park is located in Roberts County (SD)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Dakota Park
      • Estimated population in 2014: 15 people
    • Hartford Beach
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Hartford Beach is located in Roberts County (SD)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hartford Beach
      • Estimated population in 2014: 126 people
    • Wilmot
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Corona
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
      • Corona is located in Roberts County (SD)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Corona
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 107 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Corona <1>
    • Peever Flats
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
    • Peever
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
    • Rosholt
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
      • Rosholt is located in Roberts County (SD)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rosholt
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 424 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Rosholt <1>
    • Goodwill
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
      • Goodwill is located in Roberts County (SD)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Goodwill
      • Estimated population in 2014: 876 people
    • Sisseton
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
    • Spring Grove
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
      • Spring Grove is located in Roberts County (SD)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spring Grove
      • Estimated population in 2014: 125 people
    • White Rock
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
      • White Rock is located in Roberts County (SD)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for White Rock
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 3 people
    • New Effington
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)

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

Cemeteries Near Barry ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Barry.

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

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Barry, with the one closest to Barry 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.<2>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that in 1895, Barry had a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Barry had a population of 15 people.

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

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

Newspapers Published in Barry ...

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 72 newspapers that have been published in the area around Barry.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Barry, there are papers which were published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Barry.

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 Barry:

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 Barry, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<3>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Barry) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.