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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 Boonville (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 Boonville. 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 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.

Boonville is located in Cooper County and is the County Seat.

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 Cooper County: Boone, Howard, Moniteau, Morgan, Pettis & Saline.

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

  • Cooper County     (The home county of Boonville)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Boonville, with the one closest to Boonville listed first.
    • Windsor Place village
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
      • Windsor Place village is located in Cooper County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Windsor Place village
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 330 people
      • Windsor Place village has also been known as:
      • Windsor Place village
    • Clarks Fork
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Lamine
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Lone Elm
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
    • Bellair
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Pilot Grove
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Wooldridge
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
    • Petersburg ‑ Historic
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
      • Petersburg is located in Cooper County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Petersburg
    • Bunceton
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
    • Prairie Home
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
      • Prairie Home is located in Cooper County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Prairie Home
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 280 people
    • Blackwater
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
    • Harriston
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Boone County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Boonville, with the one closest to Boonville listed first.
    • Rocheport
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
    • Huntsdale
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
      • Huntsdale is located in Boone County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Huntsdale
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 35 people
    • McBaine
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
      • McBaine is located in Boone County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for McBaine
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 12 people
    • Harrisburg
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Columbia
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
    • Hinton
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
    • Moores Switch
      (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
    • Pierpont
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
      • Pierpont is located in Boone County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pierpont
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 77 people
    • Stephens
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
    • Riggs
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Hallsville
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
    • Ashland
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Chariton County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Boonville, with the one closest to Boonville listed first.
    • Lewis Mill
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
    • Oil City
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
      • Oil City is located in Chariton County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oil City
    • Namrash ‑ Historic
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Namrash is located in Chariton County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Namrash
  • Cole County
    • Centertown
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Howard County
  • Moniteau County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Boonville, with the one closest to Boonville listed first.
    • Lupus
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
      • Lupus is located in Moniteau County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lupus
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 34 people
    • Jamestown
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Clarksburg
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
      • Clarksburg is located in Moniteau County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clarksburg
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 346 people
    • Tipton
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
    • California
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Fortuna
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
      • Fortuna is located in Moniteau County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fortuna
    • Latham
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
      • Latham is located in Moniteau County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Latham
    • McGirk
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
      • McGirk is located in Moniteau County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for McGirk
  • Morgan County
  • Pettis County
  • Randolph County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Boonville, with the one closest to Boonville listed first.
    • Yates
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
    • Higbee
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Clark
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
      • Clark is located in Randolph County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clark
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 284 people
  • Saline County

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

Cemeteries Near Boonville ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Boonville.

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

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Boonville, with the one closest to Boonville 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 Boonville had a population of 4,141 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Boonville had a population of 7,878 people.

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

  • Franklin
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
  • Estill
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Estill is located in Howard County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Estill
  • Billingsville
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Billingsville is located in Cooper County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Billingsville
  • Lamine
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
  • Clarks Fork
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Boonesboro
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
  • Speed
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
    • Speed is located in Cooper County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Speed
  • Overton
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
    • Overton is located in Cooper County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Overton
  • Rocheport
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
  • Lone Elm
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
  • Pilot Grove
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Bellair
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Continue List   (15 more) ...
    • Petersburg ‑ Historic
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
      • Petersburg is located in Cooper County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Petersburg
    • Fayette
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
    • Lisbon
      (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 Boonville. See our List of 1890's Communities around Boonville.

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Boonville ...

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 182 newspapers that have been published in the area around Boonville.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Boonville. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Boonville and those printed in the larger area surrounding Boonville.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<3> of Boonville.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we like to start with the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These professional and volunteer 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 Boonville:

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