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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 Rapidan (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 Rapidan. 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 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.

Rapidan is located in Blue Earth 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 Blue Earth County: Brown, Faribault, Le Sueur, Martin, Nicollet, Waseca & Watonwan.

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

  • Blue Earth County     (The home county of Rapidan)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Rapidan, with the one closest to Rapidan listed first.
    • Skyline
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
      • Skyline is located in Blue Earth County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Skyline
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 299 people
    • Garden City
      (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Mankato
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Mankato is located in Blue Earth County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mankato
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 43,435 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Mankato <1>
    • Good Thunder
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
    • Lake Crystal
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Beauford
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Judson
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Saint Clair
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
    • Eagle Lake
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Vernon Center
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Vernon Center is located in Blue Earth County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Vernon Center
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 313 people
    • Mapleton
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Madison Lake
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Amboy
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
  • Brown County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Rapidan, with the one closest to Rapidan listed first.
    • Searles
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
      • Searles is located in Brown County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Searles
    • Hanska
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
    • New Ulm
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Essig
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Faribault County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Rapidan, with the one closest to Rapidan listed first.
    • Minnesota Lake
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Delavan
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
      • Delavan is located in Faribault County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Delavan
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 166 people
    • Winnebago
      (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
    • Easton
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
      • Easton is located in Faribault County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Easton
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 183 people
    • Huntley
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
    • Wells
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Wells is located in Faribault County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wells
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,157 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Wells <1>
  • Le Sueur County
  • Martin County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Rapidan, with the one closest to Rapidan listed first.
    • Truman
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
      • Truman is located in Martin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Truman
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,028 people
    • Northrop
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
  • Nicollet County
  • Waseca County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Rapidan, with the one closest to Rapidan listed first.
    • Alma City
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
    • Janesville
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
    • Elysian
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
    • Waldorf
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
      • Waldorf is located in Waseca County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Waldorf
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 224 people
    • Palmer
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
    • Waseca
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
    • Wilton
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
      • Wilton is located in Waseca County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wilton
  • Watonwan County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Rapidan, with the one closest to Rapidan listed first.
    • Madelia
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
    • Lewisville
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Lewisville is located in Watonwan County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lewisville
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 244 people
    • Grogan
      (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
    • La Salle
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
      • La Salle is located in Watonwan County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for La Salle
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 86 people
    • Godahl
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
      • Godahl is located in Watonwan County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Godahl
    • Saint James
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)

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

Cemeteries Near Rapidan ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Rapidan.

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

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

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

  • St. John Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
  • Holberg Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
  • Calvary Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
  • Woodland Hills Memorial Park
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
  • Minneopa Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
  • Grand View Memorial Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
  • Sibley Mound Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
  • Garden City Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
  • Lyra Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
  • Decoria Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
  • Mankato Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
  • Bunker Hill Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
  • Continue List   (240 more) ...
    • Kern's Cemetery
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Calvary Cemetery
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
    • St. Johns Cemetery
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)

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, Rapidan had a post office and railroad service.

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

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

Newspapers Published in Rapidan ...

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 192 newspapers that have been published in the area around Rapidan.

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

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 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 Rapidan:

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 Rapidan, 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 obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Rapidan) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.