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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 McCook (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 McCook. 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 northwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most 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.

McCook is located in Red Willow County and is the County Seat.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Red Willow County: Decatur (KS), Rawlins (KS), Frontier, Furnas & Hitchcock.

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

  • Red Willow County     (The home county of McCook)
  • Frontier County
  • Furnas County
    • The following are listed by their distance from McCook, with the one closest to McCook listed first.
    • Cambridge
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
    • Wilsonville
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Wilsonville have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wilsonville
      • Wilsonville is located in Furnas County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 85 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Wilsonville <1>
  • Hayes County
    • Hayes Center
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Hayes Center have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hayes Center
      • Hayes Center is located in Hayes County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 200 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Hayes Center <1>
  • Hitchcock County
  • Decatur County (KS)
    • The following are listed by their distance from McCook, with the one closest to McCook listed first.
    • Traer
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Traer have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Traer
      • Traer is located in Decatur County (KS)
    • Oberlin
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Oberlin have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oberlin
      • Oberlin is located in Decatur County (KS)
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,669 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Oberlin <1>
    • Lyle
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Lyle. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lyle
      • Lyle is located in Decatur County (KS)
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Lyle
      • From McCook to Lyle
    • Kanona
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Kanona. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kanona
      • Kanona is located in Decatur County (KS)
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Kanona
      • From McCook to Kanona
  • Rawlins County (KS)
    • The following are listed by their distance from McCook, with the one closest to McCook listed first.
    • Herndon
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Herndon have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Herndon
      • Herndon is located in Rawlins County (KS)
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 129 people
    • Ludell
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)

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

Cemeteries Near McCook ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of McCook.

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.

If you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our selection of Genealogy Websites (see below).

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from McCook, with the one closest to McCook 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.<5>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that McCook had a population of 2,346 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, McCook had a population of 7,499 people.

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

  • Perry
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Perry have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Perry
    • Perry is located in Red Willow County
  • Red Willow
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
  • Indianola
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
  • Culbertson
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
  • Cedar Bluffs
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Cedar Bluffs have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cedar Bluffs
    • Cedar Bluffs is located in Decatur County (KS)
  • Danbury
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Quick
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Quick have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Quick
    • Quick is located in Frontier County
  • Bartley
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
  • Traer
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Traer have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Traer
    • Traer is located in Decatur County (KS)
  • Beverly
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Beverly. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Beverly
    • Beverly is located in Hitchcock County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Beverly
    • From McCook to Beverly
  • Cornell ‑ Historic
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Cornell have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cornell
    • Cornell is located in Hitchcock County
  • Trenton
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
  • Continue List   (13 more) ...
    • Lebanon
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Herndon
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Herndon have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Herndon
      • Herndon is located in Rawlins County (KS)
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 129 people
    • Cambridge
      (24 miles [38.6 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 McCook. See our List of 1890's Communities around McCook.

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of McCook ...

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 105 newspapers that have been published in the area around McCook.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of McCook. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of McCook and those printed in the larger area surrounding McCook.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<6> of McCook.

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 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 McCook:

Unfortunately, we don't know of a website for McCook. If you can help, please contact us through our Feedback Page.

The official website for Red Willow County: www.co.red-willow.ne.us/

The official website for State of Nebraska: https://www.nebraska.gov/

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 location has been supplied by the Geographic Names Information System - which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While these values should be definitive, we found that accuracy can vary and you should double-check the location if accuracy is required.
<3>An 'estimated' location is one where we have been given GPS coordinates, but are unable to verify the accuracy of those coordinates. That said, we have some confidence that we have placed the marker near the actual location. A typical reason for being unable to verify a location is that it might be on private property or maybe historic and gone without an obvious trace.
<4>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.
<5>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 McCook, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<6>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- McCook) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in McCook. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 40.2069, Longitude: -100.6254    









 

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This page was last modified/updated: 28 Apr 2025