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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 O'Neill (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 O'Neill. 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 O'Neill ...

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 have occurred.

O'Neill has also been known as: O'Neill City.

Another variation: O'Neil.

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.

O'Neill is located in Holt 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 Holt County: Antelope, Boyd, Knox, Loup, Rock & Wheeler.

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

  • Holt County     (The home county of O'Neill)
    • The following are listed by their distance from O'Neill, with the one closest to O'Neill listed first.
    • Inman
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Inman have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Inman
      • Inman is located in Holt County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 119 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Inman <2>
    • Emmet
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Emmet have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Emmet
      • Emmet is located in Holt County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 46 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Emmet <2>
    • Page
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
    • Emporia ‑ Historic
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Emporia. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Emporia
      • Emporia is located in Holt County
    • Atkinson
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Atkinson have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Atkinson
      • Atkinson is located in Holt County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,221 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Atkinson <2>
    • Star
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Star
      • Star is located in Holt County
    • Chambers
      (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Chambers have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chambers
      • Chambers is located in Holt County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 253 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Chambers <2>
    • Ewing
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Ewing have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ewing
      • Ewing is located in Holt County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 368 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Ewing <2>
    • Amelia
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Inez ‑ Historic
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Inez have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Inez
      • Inez is located in Holt County
    • Redbird
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Redbird
      • Redbird is located in Holt County
    • Stuart
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Stuart have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stuart
      • Stuart is located in Holt County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 580 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Stuart <2>
  • Antelope County
    • The following are listed by their distance from O'Neill, with the one closest to O'Neill listed first.
    • Orchard
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
    • Royal
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Royal have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Royal
      • Royal is located in Antelope County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 56 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Royal <2>
    • Clearwater
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Clearwater have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clearwater
      • Clearwater is located in Antelope County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 398 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Clearwater <2>
  • Boyd County
    • The following are listed by their distance from O'Neill, with the one closest to O'Neill listed first.
    • Bristow
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
    • Lynch
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
    • Spencer
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
    • Monowi
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Monowi
      • Monowi is located in Boyd County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1 people
  • Knox County
    • The following are listed by their distance from O'Neill, with the one closest to O'Neill listed first.
    • Venus ‑ Historic
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Venus have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Venus
      • Venus is located in Knox County
    • Walnut
      (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Walnut
      • Walnut is located in Knox County
    • Pishelville ‑ Historic
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Pishelville have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pishelville
      • Pishelville is located in Knox County
    • Dukeville
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dukeville
      • Dukeville is located in Knox County

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of O'Neill ...

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 71 newspapers that have been published in the area around O'Neill.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

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

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 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 O'Neill:

Cemeteries Near O'Neill ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of O'Neill.

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 O'Neill covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from O'Neill, with the one closest to O'Neill listed first.

  • Inman Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Inman Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Inman Cemetery
  • Page Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Page Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located less than 2 miles<4> to the west of Page.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Page Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #1961103 <5>
  • Miniola Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Miniola Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Miniola Cemetery
  • Lambert Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
  • Scottville Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Scottville Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Scottville Cemetery
  • Woodlawn Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Woodlawn Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Woodlawn Cemetery
  • St. Joseph Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
  • Trussel Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Trussel Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Trussel Cemetery
  • Phoenix Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
  • Florence Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for the Florence Cemetery. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Florence Cemetery is located 7 miles [11.3 km]<4> to the northwest of Page.
    • The Florence Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Lee Cemetery
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Florence Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2342598 <5>
  • Walnut Grove Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Walnut Grove Cemetery is located 11 miles [17.7 km]<4> to the southwest of Page.
    • The Walnut Grove Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Grimton Cemetery
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Walnut Grove Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #100721 <5>
  • Star Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Star Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Star Cemetery
  • Continue List   (31 more) ...
    • Vandersnick Cemetery
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Vandersnick Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Vandersnick Cemetery
    • St. Peter's Catholic Cemetery
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Hope - Enterprise Cemetery
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
      • To give a relative sense of its location, the Hope - Enterprise Cemetery is located 10 miles [16.1 km]<4> to the southwest of Page.
      • The Hope - Enterprise Cemetery has also been known as:
      • Enterprise Cemetery
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Hope - Enterprise Cemetery
      • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #100592 <5>

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.<6>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that O'Neill had a population of 1,226 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, O'Neill had a population of 3,537 people.

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

  • Inman
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Inman have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Inman
    • Inman is located in Holt County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 119 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Inman <2>
  • Emmet
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Emmet have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Emmet
    • Emmet is located in Holt County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 46 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Emmet <2>
  • Page
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
  • Stafford
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Stafford have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stafford
    • Stafford is located in Holt County
  • Atkinson
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Atkinson have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Atkinson
    • Atkinson is located in Holt County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,221 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Atkinson <2>
  • Chambers
    (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Chambers have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chambers
    • Chambers is located in Holt County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 253 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Chambers <2>
  • Star
    (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Star
    • Star is located in Holt County
  • Venus ‑ Historic
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Venus have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Venus
    • Venus is located in Knox County
  • Amelia
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Ewing
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Ewing have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ewing
    • Ewing is located in Holt County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 368 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Ewing <2>
  • Inez ‑ Historic
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Inez have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Inez
    • Inez is located in Holt County
  • Dorsey
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Dorsey have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dorsey
    • Dorsey is located in Holt County
  • Continue List   (11 more) ...
    • Orchard
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
    • Knoxville
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Knoxville have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Knoxville
      • Knoxville is located in Knox County
    • Paddock
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Paddock have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Paddock
      • Paddock is located in Holt County

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

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

The official website for Holt County: www.co.holt.ne.us/

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

Footnotes ...

<1>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.
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<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>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- O'Neill) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in O'Neill. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 42.4601, Longitude: -98.6479    
<5>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.
<6>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 O'Neill, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024