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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 Aurora (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 Aurora. 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.

Aurora is located in Lawrence County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Lawrence County: Barry, Christian, Dade, Greene, Jasper, Newton & Stone.

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

  • Lawrence County     (The home county of Aurora)
  • Barry County
  • Christian County
  • Dade County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Aurora, with the one closest to Aurora listed first.
    • Everton
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
    • Pilgrim
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
    • South Greenfield
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
      • South Greenfield is located in Dade County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Greenfield
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 86 people
  • Greene County
  • Jasper County
  • McDonald County
  • Newton County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Aurora, with the one closest to Aurora listed first.
    • Wentworth
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
      • Wentworth is located in Newton County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wentworth
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 145 people
    • Talmage City
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
      • Talmage City is located in Newton County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Talmage City
    • Fairview
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
    • Ritchey
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
      • Ritchey is located in Newton County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ritchey
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 81 people
    • Newtonia
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
    • Park
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
      • Park is located in Newton County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Park
    • Stark City
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
    • Stella
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Granby
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
    • Granby City
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
      • Granby City is located in Newton County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Granby City
  • Stone County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Aurora, with the one closest to Aurora listed first.
    • Bradfield
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
    • Crane
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Hurley
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
    • Union City
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
      • Union City is located in Stone County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Union City
    • Oto
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Galena
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
    • McCord Bend
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
      • McCord Bend is located in Stone County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for McCord Bend
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 304 people
    • White City
      (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
      • White City is located in Stone County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for White City
    • Cape Fair
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Ponce de Leon
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
      • Ponce de Leon is located in Stone County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ponce de Leon
    • Reeds Spring
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Branson West
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
      • Branson West is located in Stone County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Branson West
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 451 people
    • Kimberling City
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Taney County

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

Cemeteries Near Aurora ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Aurora.

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

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Aurora, with the one closest to Aurora 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 Aurora had a population of 3,482 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Aurora had a population of 7,432 people.

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

  • Marionville
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
  • Verona
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Verona is located in Lawrence County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Verona
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 606 people
  • Logan
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Logan is located in Lawrence County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Logan
  • Bradfield
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
  • Scholten
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
  • McDowell
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
    • McDowell is located in Barry County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for McDowell
  • Mount Vernon
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
  • Chesapeake
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
    • Chesapeake is located in Lawrence County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chesapeake
  • Freistatt
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
    • Freistatt is located in Lawrence County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Freistatt
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 160 people
  • Monett
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
  • Leann
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
  • Billings
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Continue List   (15 more) ...
    • Jenkins
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
    • School
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
      • School is located in Stone County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for School
    • Spencer
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
      • Spencer is located in Lawrence County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spencer

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Aurora ...

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 Aurora.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Aurora. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Aurora and those printed in the larger area surrounding Aurora.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 26 miles [41.8 km]<3> of Aurora.

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 Aurora:

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