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A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
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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 Merwin (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 Merwin. 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 northeast 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 north.

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 north 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.

Merwin is located in Bates 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 Bates County: Linn (KS), Miami (KS), Cass, Henry, Saint Clair & Vernon.

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

  • Bates County     (The home county of Merwin)
  • Cass County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Merwin, with the one closest to Merwin listed first.
    • Main City
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
      • Main City is located in Cass County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Main City
    • Archie
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Freeman
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
    • West Line
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
    • Lake Annette
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
      • Lake Annette is located in Cass County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lake Annette
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 102 people
    • Austin
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Cleveland
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
    • Harrisonville
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Peculiar
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
    • Garden City
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
    • Riverview Estates
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
      • Riverview Estates is located in Cass County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Riverview Estates
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 84 people
      • Riverview Estates has also been known as:
      • Riverview Estates village
    • Harrelson
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
      • Harrelson is located in Cass County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harrelson
    • Coleman
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
  • Johnson County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Merwin, with the one closest to Merwin listed first.
    • La Tour
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
      • La Tour is located in Johnson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for La Tour
    • Latour
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Vernon County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Merwin, with the one closest to Merwin listed first.
    • Metz
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
    • Stotesbury
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
      • Stotesbury is located in Vernon County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stotesbury
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 17 people
  • Anderson County (KS)
    • Greeley
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
      • Greeley is located in Anderson County (KS)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Greeley
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 302 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Greeley <1>
  • Bourbon County (KS)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Merwin, with the one closest to Merwin listed first.
    • Barnesville ‑ Historic
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
    • Fulton
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
      • Fulton is located in Bourbon County (KS)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fulton
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 154 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Fulton <1>
  • Franklin County (KS)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Merwin, with the one closest to Merwin listed first.
    • Lane
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
      • Lane is located in Franklin County (KS)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lane
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 229 people
      • Lane has also been known as:
      • Lane City
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Lane <1>
    • Rantoul
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
  • Johnson County (KS)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Merwin, with the one closest to Merwin listed first.
    • Stilwell
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
    • Spring Hill
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Spring Hill is located in Johnson County (KS)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spring Hill
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 7,871 people
      • Spring Hill has also been known as:
      • Spring Hill Station
      • Springfield
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Spring Hill <1>
  • Linn County (KS)
  • Miami County (KS)

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

Cemeteries Near Merwin ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Merwin.

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

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Merwin, with the one closest to Merwin 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, Merwin had a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Merwin had a population of 59 people.

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

  • Amsterdam
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
  • Jingo
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
  • Burdett
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
  • Drexel
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
  • Main City
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Main City is located in Cass County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Main City
  • Mulberry
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
    • Mulberry is located in Bates County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mulberry
  • New Lancaster
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
  • La Cygne
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Lisle
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
    • Lisle is located in Cass County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lisle
  • Amoret
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
  • Virginia
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Virginia is located in Bates County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Virginia
  • Boicourt
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Continue List   (17 more) ...
    • Trading Post
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Trading Post is located in Linn County (KS)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Trading Post
    • Everett
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Everett is located in Cass County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Everett
    • Adrian
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Merwin ...

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 146 newspapers that have been published in the area around Merwin.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Merwin. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Merwin and those printed in the larger area surrounding Merwin.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<2> of Merwin.

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 helpful 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 Merwin:

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>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Merwin) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<3>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.
<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 Merwin, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.