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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 Nixa (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 Nixa. 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 Nixa ...

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.

Although we can't give a definitive list, hopefully the following will give you a feel for the variations that might occur.

Prior to its current name of Nixa, it was known as Faught.

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.

A Few Details for Nixa ...

While it's still very early in our research, we found that:

  • The naming (or the toponymy) of Nixa: Named after Nicholas A. Inman, a blacksmith who was an early settler in this area.
  • It was incorporated on June 10, 1902.

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.

Nixa is located in Christian 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 Christian County: Douglas, Greene, Lawrence, Stone, Taney & Webster.

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

  • Christian County     (The home county of Nixa)
  • Barry County
  • Dade County
    • Everton
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Douglas County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Nixa, with the one closest to Nixa listed first.
    • Johns Mills ‑ Historic
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
      • Johns Mills is located in Douglas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Johns Mills
    • Arden
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
    • Red Bank
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
  • Greene County
  • Lawrence County
  • Polk County
  • Stone County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Nixa, with the one closest to Nixa listed first.
    • Union City
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Union City is located in Stone County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Union City
    • Ponce de Leon
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
      • Ponce de Leon is located in Stone County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ponce de Leon
    • White City
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
      • White City is located in Stone County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for White City
    • Hurley
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Oto
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Bradfield
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
    • Crane
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Galena
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Reeds Spring
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
    • McCord Bend
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
      • McCord Bend is located in Stone County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for McCord Bend
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 304 people
    • Branson West
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
      • Branson West is located in Stone County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Branson West
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 451 people
    • Cape Fair
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
  • Taney County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Nixa, with the one closest to Nixa listed first.
    • Day
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
    • Walnut Shade
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
      • Walnut Shade is located in Taney County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Walnut Shade
    • Bull Creek
      (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
      • Bull Creek is located in Taney County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bull Creek
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 633 people
    • Merriam Woods
      (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
      • Merriam Woods is located in Taney County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Merriam Woods
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,859 people
    • Rockaway Beach
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
    • Taneyville
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Taneyville is located in Taney County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Taneyville
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 361 people
    • Forsyth
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
    • Bradleyville
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Bradleyville is located in Taney County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bradleyville
    • Branson
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
    • Powersite
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
      • Powersite is located in Taney County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Powersite
    • Kissee Mills
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Hollister
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
  • Webster County

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

Cemeteries Near Nixa ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Nixa.

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

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Nixa, with the one closest to Nixa 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>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that in 1895, Nixa had a post office and no railroad service. In 2020, Nixa had a population of 23,330 people.

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

  • Riverdale
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • Riverdale is located in Christian County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Riverdale
  • Cassidy
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
  • Ozark
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
  • Griffin ‑ Historic
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
    • Griffin is located in Christian County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Griffin
  • Highlandville
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
  • Galloway
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Galloway is located in Greene County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Galloway
  • Palace ‑ Historic
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Palace is located in Greene County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Palace
  • Pembina
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
  • Langston
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
    • Langston is located in Greene County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Langston
  • School
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • School is located in Stone County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for School
  • Republic
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
  • Sparta
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
    • Sparta is located in Christian County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sparta
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,076 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Sparta <1>
  • 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 Nixa. See our List of 1890's Communities around Nixa.

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Nixa ...

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 113 newspapers that have been published in the area around Nixa.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Nixa. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Nixa and those printed in the larger area surrounding Nixa.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 24 miles [38.6 km]<4> of Nixa.

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 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 Nixa:

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 Nixa, 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 drawn from Point A (ie- Nixa) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.