RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Missouri >> Atchison County >> Rock Port >> 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 Rock Port (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 Rock Port. 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 Rock Port ...

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.

Another variation: Rockport.

  • A typical abbreviation for Rock Port: Rock Prt.

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 northwest 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 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 west 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.

Rock Port is located in Atchison County and is the County Seat.

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 Atchison County: Fremont (IA), Page (IA), Holt, Nodaway, Nemaha (NE), Otoe (NE) & Richardson (NE).

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

  • Atchison County     (The home county of Rock Port)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Rock Port, with the one closest to Rock Port listed first.
    • Phelps City
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
      • Phelps City is located in Atchison County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Phelps City
    • Tarkio
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
    • Watson
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Fairfax
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Farmers City
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
      • Farmers City is located in Atchison County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Farmers City
    • Westboro
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
      • Westboro is located in Atchison County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Westboro
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 126 people
  • Holt County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Rock Port, with the one closest to Rock Port listed first.
    • Corning
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
    • Craig
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Big Lake
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
    • Bigelow
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
      • Bigelow is located in Holt County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bigelow
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 23 people
    • Mound City
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Fortescue
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
      • Fortescue is located in Holt County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fortescue
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 28 people
    • Maitland
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Maitland is located in Holt County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Maitland
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 296 people
  • Nodaway County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Rock Port, with the one closest to Rock Port listed first.
    • Elmo
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
      • Elmo is located in Nodaway County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elmo
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 148 people
    • Burlington Junction
      (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
    • Quitman
      (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
      • Quitman is located in Nodaway County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Quitman
      • Estimated population in 2017: 42 people
    • Skidmore
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
    • Clearmont
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
    • Graham
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Fremont County (IA)
  • Page County (IA)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Rock Port, with the one closest to Rock Port listed first.
    • Northboro
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Blanchard
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Coin
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Shenandoah
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
    • College Springs
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
      • College Springs is located in Page County (IA)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for College Springs
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 204 people
    • Braddyville
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Tarkio City ‑ Historic
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
      • Tarkio City is located in Page County (IA)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tarkio City
    • Yorktown
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Yorktown is located in Page County (IA)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Yorktown
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 83 people
    • Shambaugh
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Brown County (KS)
  • Johnson County (NE)
  • Nemaha County (NE)
  • Otoe County (NE)
  • Richardson County (NE)

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

Cemeteries Near Rock Port ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Rock Port.

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 Rock Port - one of the links might be able to help.

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Rock Port, with the one closest to Rock Port 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 Rock Port had a population of 934 people in 1895 with a post office and no railroad service. In 2020, Rock Port had a population of 1,183 people.

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

  • Phelps City
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Phelps City is located in Atchison County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Phelps City
  • Langdon ‑ Historic
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Langdon is located in Atchison County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Langdon
  • Tarkio
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
  • Watson
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Brownville
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
  • Nishnabotna ‑ Historic
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
    • Nishnabotna is located in Atchison County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nishnabotna
  • Fairfax
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
  • Nemaha
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Saint Deroin ‑ Historic
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
  • Milton ‑ Historic
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Milton is located in Atchison County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Milton
  • Corning
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
  • High Creek
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
  • Continue List   (15 more) ...
    • Peru
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
    • Barada
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
    • York ‑ Historic
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
      • York is located in Atchison County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for York

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Rock Port ...

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 Rock Port.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Rock Port. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Rock Port and those printed in the larger area surrounding Rock Port.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<4> of Rock Port.

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 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 Rock Port:

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 Rock Port, 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 things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Rock Port) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.