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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 Fidelity (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 Fidelity. 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.

Fidelity is located in Jasper 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 Jasper County: Cherokee (KS), Crawford (KS), Barton, Dade, Lawrence & Newton.

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

  • Jasper County     (The home county of Fidelity)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Fidelity, with the one closest to Fidelity listed first.
    • Parshley
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Duenweg
      (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Motley
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Carthage
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Prosperity
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Brooklyn Heights
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Brooklyn Heights is located in Jasper County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brooklyn Heights
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 105 people
    • Reeds
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
      • Reeds is located in Jasper County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Reeds
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 99 people
    • Forest Mills
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Carterville
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Duquesne
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
      • Duquesne is located in Jasper County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Duquesne
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,689 people
    • East Joplin
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
    • Oakland Park
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
      • Oakland Park is located in Jasper County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oakland Park
    • Rex City
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
      • Rex City is located in Jasper County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rex City
  • Barry County
  • Barton County
  • Dade County
    • Lockwood
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Lockwood is located in Dade County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lockwood
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 897 people
  • Lawrence County
  • McDonald County
  • Newton County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Fidelity, with the one closest to Fidelity listed first.
    • Diamond
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
    • Granby City
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
      • Granby City is located in Newton County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Granby City
    • Park
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Park is located in Newton County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Park
    • Saginaw
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
      • Saginaw is located in Newton County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Saginaw
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 305 people
    • Silver Creek
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
      • Silver Creek is located in Newton County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Silver Creek
      • Estimated population in 2012: 631 people
    • Leawood
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
      • Leawood is located in Newton County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Leawood
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 678 people
    • Granby
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
    • Ritchey
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Ritchey is located in Newton County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ritchey
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 81 people
    • Shoal Creek Estates
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Shoal Creek Estates is located in Newton County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shoal Creek Estates
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 92 people
    • Dennis Acres
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
      • Dennis Acres is located in Newton County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dennis Acres
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 72 people
    • Cliff Village
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
      • Cliff Village is located in Newton County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cliff Village
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 39 people
    • Redings Mill
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
      • Redings Mill is located in Newton County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Redings Mill
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 150 people
    • Shoal Creek Drive
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
      • Shoal Creek Drive is located in Newton County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shoal Creek Drive
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 327 people
  • Cherokee County (KS)
  • Crawford County (KS)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Fidelity, with the one closest to Fidelity listed first.
    • Opolis
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Kirkwood
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Ottawa County (OK)

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

Cemeteries Near Fidelity ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Fidelity.

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

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Fidelity, with the one closest to Fidelity 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 in 1895, Fidelity had a post office and no railroad service. In 2020, Fidelity had a population of 268 people.

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

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

Newspapers Published in Fidelity ...

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 Fidelity.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Fidelity, there are papers which were published within 24 miles [38.6 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Fidelity.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we begin with 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 Fidelity:

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' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Fidelity) 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 Fidelity, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.