RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of North Dakota >> Richland County >> Oswald >> 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 Oswald (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 Oswald. 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 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.

Oswald is located in Richland County.

To see how the shape of North Dakota's counties may have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Richland County: Traverse (MN), Wilkin (MN), Cass, Ransom, Sargent & Roberts (SD).

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

  • Richland County     (The home county of Oswald)
  • Grant County (MN)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Oswald, with the one closest to Oswald listed first.
    • Norcross
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Norcross is located in Grant County (MN)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Norcross
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 71 people
    • Wendell
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
  • Otter Tail County (MN)
  • Traverse County (MN)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Oswald, with the one closest to Oswald listed first.
    • Tintah
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
    • Wheaton
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Charlesville
      (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
    • Dumont
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Dumont is located in Traverse County (MN)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dumont
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 87 people
  • Wilkin County (MN)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Oswald, with the one closest to Oswald listed first.
    • Childs
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
    • Tenney
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
      • Tenney is located in Wilkin County (MN)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tenney
      • Estimated population in 2011: 5 people
    • Doran
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Campbell
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
      • Campbell is located in Wilkin County (MN)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Campbell
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 152 people
    • Breckenridge
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Nashua
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
      • Nashua is located in Wilkin County (MN)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nashua
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 66 people
    • Foxhome
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
      • Foxhome is located in Wilkin County (MN)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Foxhome
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 112 people
    • Kent
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
  • Marshall County (SD)
  • Roberts County (SD)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Oswald, with the one closest to Oswald listed first.
    • White Rock
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
      • White Rock is located in Roberts County (SD)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for White Rock
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 3 people
    • Rosholt
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
      • Rosholt is located in Roberts County (SD)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rosholt
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 424 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Rosholt <1>
    • New Effington
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Hammer
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
      • Hammer is located in Roberts County (SD)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hammer
      • Estimated population in 2014: 241 people
    • Claire City
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)

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

Cemeteries Near Oswald ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Oswald.

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

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Oswald, with the one closest to Oswald 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, Oswald had railroad service and no post office.

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

  • Sonora
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
    • Sonora is located in Richland County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sonora
  • Fairmount
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
  • Great Bend
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Tyler
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Tyler is located in Richland County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tyler
  • Hankinson
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
  • Childs
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
  • White Rock
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
    • White Rock is located in Roberts County (SD)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for White Rock
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 3 people
  • Tenney
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
    • Tenney is located in Wilkin County (MN)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tenney
    • Estimated population in 2011: 5 people
  • Doran
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Farmington
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
    • Farmington is located in Richland County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Farmington
  • Fairview Junction
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
  • Campbell
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
    • Campbell is located in Wilkin County (MN)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Campbell
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 152 people
  • 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 Oswald. See our List of 1890's Communities around Oswald.

Newspapers Published in Oswald ...

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 57 newspapers that have been published in the area around Oswald.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Oswald, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<2>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Oswald.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first turn to 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 Oswald:

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 '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- Oswald) 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 Oswald, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.