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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 Pierce (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 Pierce. 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 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 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.

Pierce is located in Pierce County and is the County Seat.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Pierce County: Antelope, Cedar, Knox, Madison, Stanton & Wayne.

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

  • Pierce County     (The home county of Pierce)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Pierce, with the one closest to Pierce listed first.
    • Wee Town
      (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
      • Wee Town is located in Pierce County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wee Town
    • Hadar
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Foster
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Osmond
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
    • McLean
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
    • Breslau
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
      • Breslau is located in Pierce County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Breslau
    • Plainview
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
  • Antelope County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Pierce, with the one closest to Pierce listed first.
    • Brunswick
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Oakdale
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
    • Neligh
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
  • Cedar County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Pierce, with the one closest to Pierce listed first.
    • Randolph
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Magnet
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
    • Belden
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Coleridge
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Laurel
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Dixon County
    • Concord
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Knox County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Pierce, with the one closest to Pierce listed first.
    • Wausa
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
    • Creighton
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Bloomfield
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
    • Bazile Mills
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
      • Bazile Mills is located in Knox County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bazile Mills
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 29 people
    • Winnetoon
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Madison County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Pierce, with the one closest to Pierce listed first.
    • Norfolk
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Battle Creek
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
    • Meadow Grove
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Warnerville
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
      • Warnerville is located in Madison County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Warnerville
    • Tilden
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Fairview ‑ Historic
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
      • Fairview is located in Madison County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fairview
    • Emerick
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
      • Emerick is located in Madison County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Emerick
    • Madison
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
    • Kalamazoo
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
      • Kalamazoo is located in Madison County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kalamazoo
  • Stanton County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Pierce, with the one closest to Pierce listed first.
    • Stanton
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
    • Pilger
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Wayne County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Pierce, with the one closest to Pierce listed first.
    • Hoskins
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Sholes
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Sholes is located in Wayne County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sholes
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 20 people
    • Carroll
      (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
    • Winside
      (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
    • Wayne
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)

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

Cemeteries Near Pierce ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Pierce.

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

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

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

  • St. Josephs Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
  • Prospect View Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
  • Zion Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
  • Immanuel Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Trinity Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
  • Osmond Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
  • Best Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
  • Lambrecht Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
  • Jackson Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
  • St. Paul Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Hillcrest Memorial Park
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hillcrest Memorial Park
    • The Hillcrest Memorial Park has also been known as:
    • Hillcrest Cemetery
  • Rose Hill Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
  • Continue List   (67 more) ...
    • Prospect Hill Cemetery
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Immanuel Cemetery
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
    • St. Marys Cemetery
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)

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.<3>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Pierce had a population of 563 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Pierce had a population of 1,734 people.

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

  • Hadar
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Foster
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
  • Osmond
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
  • Norfolk
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Hoskins
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Battle Creek
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
  • Meadow Grove
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
  • Randolph
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Warnerville
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
    • Warnerville is located in Madison County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Warnerville
  • Plainview
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
  • Winside
    (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
  • Carroll
    (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
  • Continue List   (15 more) ...
    • Magnet
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
    • Tilden
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Wausa
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Pierce ...

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 174 newspapers that have been published in the area around Pierce.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

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

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 Pierce:

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 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.
<3>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 Pierce, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<4>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 from Point A (ie- Pierce) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.