RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Missouri >> Lafayette County >> Waterloo >> 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 Waterloo (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 Waterloo. 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 doctors and 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.

Waterloo is located in Lafayette 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 Lafayette County: Carroll, Jackson, Johnson, Pettis, Ray & Saline.

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

  • Lafayette County     (The home county of Waterloo)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Waterloo, with the one closest to Waterloo listed first.
    • Wellington
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
    • Napoleon
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
      • Napoleon is located in Lafayette County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Napoleon
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 214 people
    • Bates City
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
    • Lexington
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Odessa
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Mayview
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Lake Lafayette
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
    • Page City
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
      • Page City is located in Lafayette County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Page City
    • Higginsville
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
    • Dover
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
    • Aullville
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
      • Aullville is located in Lafayette County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Aullville
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 102 people
    • Corder
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
  • Caldwell County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Waterloo, with the one closest to Waterloo listed first.
    • Polo
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
    • Cowgill
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
  • Carroll County
  • Cass County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Waterloo, with the one closest to Waterloo listed first.
    • Lee's Summit
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
    • Baldwin Park
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
      • Baldwin Park is located in Cass County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Baldwin Park
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 96 people
    • Strasburg
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
    • Pleasant Hill
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Lake Winnebago
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
      • Lake Winnebago is located in Cass County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lake Winnebago
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,370 people
  • Clay County
  • Clinton County
  • Jackson County
  • Johnson County
  • Platte County
    • Northmoor
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
      • Northmoor is located in Platte County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Northmoor
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 362 people
  • Ray County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Waterloo, with the one closest to Waterloo listed first.
    • Fleming
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
      • Fleming is located in Ray County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fleming
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 128 people
    • Camden
      (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Orrick
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Albany
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
      • Albany is located in Ray County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Albany
    • Henrietta
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
      • Henrietta is located in Ray County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Henrietta
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 355 people
    • Richmond
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
    • Hardin
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
      • Hardin is located in Ray County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hardin
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 531 people
    • Rayville
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
    • Morton
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Wood Heights
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Wood Heights is located in Ray County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wood Heights
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 700 people
    • Woods Heights
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Crystal Lakes
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
      • Crystal Lakes is located in Ray County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crystal Lakes
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 352 people
  • Saline County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Waterloo, with the one closest to Waterloo listed first.
    • Blackburn
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
    • Little Osage Village
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
      • Little Osage Village is located in Saline County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Little Osage Village

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

Cemeteries Near Waterloo ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Waterloo.

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

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Waterloo, with the one closest to Waterloo 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 Waterloo had a population of 20 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service.

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

  • Wellington
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
  • Napoleon
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
    • Napoleon is located in Lafayette County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Napoleon
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 214 people
  • Fleming
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Fleming is located in Ray County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fleming
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 128 people
  • Camden
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
  • Levasy
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Levasy is located in Jackson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Levasy
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 82 people
  • Greenton
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Greenton is located in Lafayette County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Greenton
  • Floyd
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Floyd is located in Ray County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Floyd
  • Myrick
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Myrick is located in Lafayette County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Myrick
  • Orrick
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Bates City
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
  • Buckner
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
  • Oak Grove
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Continue List   (14 more) ...

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

Newspapers Published in Waterloo ...

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 93 newspapers that have been published in the area around Waterloo.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Waterloo, there are papers which were published within 25 miles [40.2 km]<2>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Waterloo.

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 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 Waterloo:

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' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Waterloo) 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 Waterloo, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.