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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 Ogallala (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 Ogallala. 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 southwest 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 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 west 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.

Ogallala is located in Keith 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 Keith County: Sedgwick (CO), Arthur, Deuel, Garden, Lincoln, McPherson & Perkins.

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

  • Keith County     (The home county of Ogallala)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Ogallala, with the one closest to Ogallala listed first.
    • Roscoe
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Roscoe have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Roscoe
      • Roscoe is located in Keith County
    • Keystone
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Brule
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
    • Lemoyne
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Megeath
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Megeath have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Megeath
      • Megeath is located in Keith County
    • Belmar
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Belmar
      • Belmar is located in Keith County
    • Paxton
      (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
    • Sarben
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sarben
      • Sarben is located in Keith County
  • Arthur County
    • Arthur
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
  • Deuel County
    • Big Springs
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
  • Garden County
    • Lewellen
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Lincoln County
    • Sutherland
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
  • Perkins County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Ogallala, with the one closest to Ogallala listed first.
    • Grant
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grant
      • Grant is located in Perkins County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,104 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Grant <2>
    • Madrid
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Madrid have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Madrid
      • Madrid is located in Perkins County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 230 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Madrid <2>
    • Brandon
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brandon
      • Brandon is located in Perkins County
    • Elsie
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Grainton
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Grainton have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grainton
      • Grainton is located in Perkins County
    • Venango
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Venango have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Venango
      • Venango is located in Perkins County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 159 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Venango <2>
  • Sedgwick County (CO)
    • Julesburg
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Ogallala ...

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 59 newspapers that have been published in the area around Ogallala.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Ogallala. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Ogallala and those printed in the larger area surrounding Ogallala.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<3> of Ogallala.

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 Ogallala:

Cemeteries Near Ogallala ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Ogallala.

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 Ogallala covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Ogallala, with the one closest to Ogallala 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 Ogallala had a population of 494 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Ogallala had a population of 4,473 people.

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

  • Roscoe
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Roscoe have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Roscoe
    • Roscoe is located in Keith County
  • Brule
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
  • Keystone
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Paxton
    (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
  • Big Springs
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
  • Grant
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grant
    • Grant is located in Perkins County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,104 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Grant <2>
  • Madrid
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Madrid have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Madrid
    • Madrid is located in Perkins County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 230 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Madrid <2>
  • Barton
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Barton have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Barton
    • Barton is located in Deuel County
  • Brandon
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brandon
    • Brandon is located in Perkins County
  • Elsie
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)

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

The official website for Ogallala: www.ogallala-ne.gov/

The official website for Keith County: www.co.keith.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>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Ogallala) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Ogallala. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 41.1285, Longitude: -101.7186    
<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 Ogallala, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024