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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 Piercy Place (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 Piercy Place. 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 Piercy Place ...

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.

For example, a typical abbreviation for Piercy Place: Piercy Pl. (or less commonly used: Piercy Plc.)

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.

Piercy Place is located in Cherry County.

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 Cherry County: Blaine, Brown, Grant, Hooker, Keya Paha, Sheridan, Thomas, Bennett (SD), Oglala Lakota (SD), Todd (SD) & Tripp (SD).

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

  • Cherry County     (The home county of Piercy Place)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Piercy Place, with the one closest to Piercy Place listed first.
    • Audacious ‑ Historic
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Audacious. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<1>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Audacious
      • Audacious is located in Cherry County
    • Elsmere
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elsmere
      • Elsmere is located in Cherry County
    • Brownlee
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brownlee
      • Brownlee is located in Cherry County
    • Wood Lake
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
    • Arabia ‑ Historic
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Arabia. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<1>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Arabia
      • Arabia is located in Cherry County
    • Kennedy
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kennedy
      • Kennedy is located in Cherry County
  • Blaine County
  • Brown County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Piercy Place, with the one closest to Piercy Place listed first.
    • Johnstown
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Johnstown have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Johnstown
      • Johnstown is located in Brown County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 60 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Johnstown <2>
    • Ainsworth
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Thomas County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Piercy Place, with the one closest to Piercy Place listed first.
    • Thedford
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Halsey
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Halsey have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Halsey
      • Halsey is located in Thomas County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 83 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Halsey <2>

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

Cemeteries Near Piercy Place ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Piercy Place.

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

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

  • Brownlee Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
  • Giles Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Purdum Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
  • Woodlawn Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Woodlawn Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Woodlawn Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Mt. Hope Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
  • Valley View Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Valley View Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Valley View Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • East Woodlawn Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the East Woodlawn Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the East Woodlawn Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Grand Prairie Cemetery
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Grand Prairie Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Grand Prairie Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Ainsworth Cemetery
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Ainsworth Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Ainsworth Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located less than 2 miles<5> to the northwest of Ainsworth.
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #100308 <4>
  • Continue List   (6 more) ...
    • German Cemetery
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the German Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the German Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Simeon Cemetery
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Hawley Flats Cemetery
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Cornish Cemetery
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Cornish Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Cornish Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Hillcreat Cemetery
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Hillcreat Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Hillcreat Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Park Cemetery
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Park Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Park Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.

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>

While we didn't find Piercy Place in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Piercy Place.

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

  • Brownlee
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brownlee
    • Brownlee is located in Cherry County
  • Purdum
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
  • Johnstown
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Johnstown have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Johnstown
    • Johnstown is located in Brown County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 60 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Johnstown <2>
  • Wood Lake
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
  • Simeon
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Simeon have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Simeon
    • Simeon is located in Cherry County
  • Arabia ‑ Historic
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Arabia. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<1>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Arabia
    • Arabia is located in Cherry County
  • Natick
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Natick have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Natick
    • Natick is located in Thomas County
  • Ainsworth
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Thedford
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
  • Kennedy
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kennedy
    • Kennedy is located in Cherry County

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

Newspapers Published in Piercy Place ...

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 33 newspapers that have been published in the area around Piercy Place.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Piercy Place, there are papers which were published within 28 miles [45.1 km]<5>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Piercy Place.

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 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 Piercy Place:

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

The official website for Cherry County: www.co.cherry.ne.us/

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

Footnotes ...

<1>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.
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<3>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.
<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>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Piercy Place) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Piercy Place. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 42.3489, Longitude: -100.3329       In this case, the coordinates for Piercy Place have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<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 Piercy Place, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 28 Apr 2025