RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Missouri >> Polk County >> Graydon Springs >> 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 Graydon Springs (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 Graydon Springs. 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.

Name Variations for Graydon Springs ...

When searching records, keep in mind that names and their spelling can change over time. Our sources include documents like maps, railroad schedules, Travel, Express and Shipping Guides. Many of these documents date from the 1800's and it's common to find spelling differences.

For example, a typical abbreviation for Graydon Springs: Graydon Spgs. (or less commonly used: Graydon Spngs. or Graydon Sprngs.)

If you have information about these names (such as the reason for the change, date of change, the origin of the name), please Contact Us.

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 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.

Graydon Springs is located in Polk 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 Polk County: Cedar, Dade, Dallas, Greene, Hickory & Saint Clair.

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

  • Polk County     (The home county of Graydon Springs)
  • Cedar County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Graydon Springs, with the one closest to Graydon Springs listed first.
    • Umber View Heights
      (19 miles [30.6 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
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Caplinger Mills
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Jerico Springs
      (29 miles [46.7 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
  • Christian County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Graydon Springs, with the one closest to Graydon Springs listed first.
    • Republic
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
    • Billings
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
    • Clever
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
      • Clever is located in Christian County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clever
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,836 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Clever <1>
    • Cassidy
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Fremont Hills
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Fremont Hills is located in Christian County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fremont Hills
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 936 people
    • Nixa
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Dade County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Graydon Springs, with the one closest to Graydon Springs listed first.
    • Dadeville
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
    • Bona
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Corry
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
    • Everton
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Pilgrim
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Glen Town
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
      • Glen Town is located in Dade County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Glen Town
    • Greenfield
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
    • South Greenfield
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
      • South Greenfield is located in Dade County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Greenfield
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 86 people
    • Arcola
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
      • Arcola is located in Dade County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Arcola
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 53 people
    • Lockwood
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
      • Lockwood is located in Dade County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lockwood
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 897 people
  • Dallas County
  • Greene County
  • Hickory County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Graydon Springs, with the one closest to Graydon Springs listed first.
    • Elkton
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
    • Pittsburg
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Weaubleau
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
  • Lawrence County
  • Saint Clair County
    • Collins
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
  • Webster County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Graydon Springs, with the one closest to Graydon Springs listed first.
    • Elkland
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
      • Elkland is located in Webster County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elkland
    • Conklin
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
    • Northview
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)

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

Cemeteries Near Graydon Springs ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Graydon Springs.

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 Graydon Springs - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • Lemmon Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
  • Turkey Creek Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Henderson Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
  • Green Lawn Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Leeper Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
  • Williamson Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
  • Pleasant Ridge Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
  • King Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
  • Hubbard Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Wheeler Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
  • Cave Spring Memorial Church Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
  • Hensley Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Continue List   (263 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>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that in 1895, Graydon Springs had a post office and railroad service.

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

  • Buckley ‑ Historic
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Buckley is located in Greene County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Buckley
  • Walnut Grove
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Morrisville
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
  • Wishart
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
  • Orleans ‑ Historic
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Orleans is located in Polk County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Orleans
  • Phenix ‑ Historic
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
  • Harold
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Harold is located in Greene County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harold
  • Aldrich
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
  • Sacville
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Sacville is located in Greene County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sacville
  • Gresham ‑ Historic
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Gresham is located in Polk County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gresham
  • Pearl
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Pearl is located in Greene County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pearl
  • Cave Spring
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Cave Spring is located in Greene County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cave Spring
  • Continue List   (16 more) ...

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

Newspapers Published in Graydon Springs ...

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 100 newspapers that have been published in the area around Graydon Springs.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Graydon Springs, there are papers which were published within 27 miles [43.5 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Graydon Springs.

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 either 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 Graydon Springs:

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 Graydon Springs, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<4>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Graydon Springs) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.