RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Missouri >> Cape Girardeau County >> Gordonville >> 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 Gordonville (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 Gordonville. 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 hospitals and 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.

Gordonville is located in Cape Girardeau 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 Cape Girardeau County: Alexander (IL), Union (IL), Bollinger, Perry, Scott & Stoddard.

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

  • Cape Girardeau County     (The home county of Gordonville)
  • Bollinger County
  • Madison County
  • Mississippi County
    • Bertrand
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Bertrand is located in Mississippi County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bertrand
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 747 people
  • New Madrid County
  • Perry County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Gordonville, with the one closest to Gordonville listed first.
    • Uniontown
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
      • Uniontown is located in Perry County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Uniontown
    • Altenburg
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
    • Frohna
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
      • Frohna is located in Perry County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Frohna
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 241 people
    • Biehle
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
      • Biehle is located in Perry County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Biehle
    • Brazeau
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
    • Millheim
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Eureka
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
      • Eureka is located in Perry County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eureka
    • Longtown
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
    • Farrar
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
      • Farrar is located in Perry County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Farrar
    • Perryville
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
    • Silver Lake
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Scott County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Gordonville, with the one closest to Gordonville listed first.
    • Chaffee
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
    • Scott City
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Kelso
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Caney Creek
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
    • New Hamburg
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
    • Oran
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
      • Oran is located in Scott County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oran
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,211 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Oran <1>
    • Perkins
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
      • Perkins is located in Scott County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Perkins
    • Benton
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Commerce
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Lambert
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Lambert is located in Scott County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lambert
      • Population from the 2010 Census: 34 people
    • Morley
      (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
      • Morley is located in Scott County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Morley
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 682 people
    • Haywood City
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
      • Haywood City is located in Scott County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Haywood City
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 199 people
  • Stoddard County
  • Alexander County (IL)
  • Jackson County (IL)
  • Pulaski County (IL)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Gordonville, with the one closest to Gordonville listed first.
    • Pulaski
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
      • Pulaski is located in Pulaski County (IL)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pulaski
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 169 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Pulaski <1>
    • Ullin
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
    • Villa Ridge
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
    • Mounds
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Mounds is located in Pulaski County (IL)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mounds
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 666 people
  • Union County (IL)

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

Cemeteries Near Gordonville ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Gordonville.

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

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Gordonville, with the one closest to Gordonville 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.<3>

While we didn't find Gordonville in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Gordonville.

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

  • Tilsit
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
    • Tilsit is located in Cape Girardeau County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tilsit
  • Houck
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Houck is located in Cape Girardeau County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Houck
  • Dutchtown
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
  • Jackson
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Jackson is located in Cape Girardeau County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jackson
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 14,699 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Jackson <1>
  • Allenville
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Allenville is located in Cape Girardeau County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Allenville
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 118 people
  • Cape Girardeau
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
  • Crump
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
  • Delta
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Delta is located in Cape Girardeau County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Delta
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 421 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Delta <1>
  • Burfordville
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
  • Fruitland
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
    • Fruitland is located in Cape Girardeau County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fruitland
  • Gravel Hill
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
  • Kelso
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Continue List   (15 more) ...
    • East Cape Girardeau
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
      • East Cape Girardeau is located in Alexander County (IL)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for East Cape Girardeau
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 268 people
    • Millersville
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Laflin
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)

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

Newspapers Published in Gordonville ...

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 83 newspapers that have been published in the area around Gordonville.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Gordonville, there are papers which were published within 23 miles [37 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Gordonville.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first turn to 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 Gordonville:

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