RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Missouri >> Dade County >> Bona >> Genealogy HelperIndex...

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 Bona (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 Bona. 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 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.

Bona is located in Dade 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 Dade County: Barton, Cedar, Greene, Jasper, Lawrence & Polk.

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

  • Dade County     (The home county of Bona)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Bona, with the one closest to Bona listed first.
    • Dadeville
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • Corry
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Glen Town
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
      • Glen Town is located in Dade County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Glen Town
    • Arcola
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
      • Arcola is located in Dade County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Arcola
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 53 people
    • Greenfield
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Everton
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
    • Pilgrim
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
    • South Greenfield
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
      • South Greenfield is located in Dade County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Greenfield
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 86 people
    • Lockwood
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
      • Lockwood is located in Dade County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lockwood
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 897 people
  • Barton County
  • Cedar County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Bona, with the one closest to Bona listed first.
    • Umber View Heights
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Umber View Heights is located in Cedar County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Umber View Heights
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 49 people
    • Stockton
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Caplinger Mills
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
    • Jerico Springs
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
      • Jerico Springs is located in Cedar County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jerico Springs
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 232 people
    • Willowville
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Virgil City
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Virgil City is located in Cedar County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Virgil City
    • Lebeck
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
    • El Dorado Springs
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Greene County
  • Hickory County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Bona, with the one closest to Bona listed first.
    • Weaubleau
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
    • Elkton
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Pittsburg
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Galmey
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Lawrence County
  • Polk County
  • Saint Clair County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Bona, with the one closest to Bona listed first.
    • Cobb
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
    • Collins
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
    • Gerster
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
      • Gerster is located in Saint Clair County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gerster
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 24 people
    • Roscoe
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
    • Vista
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
      • Vista is located in Saint Clair County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Vista
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 47 people
  • Vernon County

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

Cemeteries Near Bona ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Bona.

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

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

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

  • Asbell Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
  • Morris Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
  • Neil Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
  • Friend Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
  • McDaniel Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
  • Hartley Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
  • Devine Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Logan Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
  • Masonic Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
  • Shady Grove Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
  • Fullington Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
  • Rice Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
  • Continue List   (236 more) ...

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 Bona in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Bona.

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

  • Corry
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Dadeville
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
  • Cane Hill
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Cane Hill is located in Cedar County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cane Hill
  • Seybert
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Seybert is located in Dade County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Seybert
  • Aldrich
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
  • Bearcreek
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • Bearcreek is located in Cedar County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bearcreek
  • Orleans ‑ Historic
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
    • Orleans is located in Polk County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Orleans
  • Fair Play
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
  • Graydon Springs
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Walnut Grove
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Buckley ‑ Historic
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Buckley is located in Greene County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Buckley
  • Wishart
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
  • Continue List   (13 more) ...
    • Arcola
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
      • Arcola is located in Dade County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Arcola
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 53 people
    • Greenfield
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Stockton
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)

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

Newspapers Published in Bona ...

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 54 newspapers that have been published in the area around Bona.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Bona, there are papers which were published within 25 miles [40.2 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Bona.

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 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 Bona:

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 Bona, 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' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Bona) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.