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Our Genealogy Helper

Introduction ...

So far, we found very little information about Vinton. The little that we've found leads us believe that the community is historic.<1>

We've added Vinton to our Gazetteer with the hope that we can develop more information. If you can help us with Vinton, please Contact Us.

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 Vinton (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 Vinton. 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 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.

Although our information shows that the community of Vinton is historic, it would have been located within present day Valley County.

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 Valley County: Custer, Garfield, Greeley, Howard, Loup, Sherman & Wheeler.

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

  • Valley County     (The home county of Vinton)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Vinton, with the one closest to Vinton listed first.
    • Ord
      (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
      • Ord is located in Valley County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ord
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,052 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Ord <2>
    • Olean
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
      • Olean is located in Valley County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Olean
    • Elyria
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
    • Sumter
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
      • Sumter is located in Valley County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sumter
    • Arcadia
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • North Loup
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
  • Custer County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Vinton, with the one closest to Vinton listed first.
    • Comstock
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
    • Wescott
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
      • Wescott is located in Custer County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wescott
    • Sargent
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
    • Westerville
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Weissert
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
    • Ansley
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Mason City
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Berwyn
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Garfield County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Vinton, with the one closest to Vinton listed first.
    • Willow Springs ‑ Historic
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
      • Willow Springs is located in Garfield County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Willow Springs
    • Burwell
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
    • Gables ‑ Historic
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
      • Gables is located in Garfield County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gables
  • Greeley County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Vinton, with the one closest to Vinton listed first.
    • Horace ‑ Historic
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
      • Horace is located in Greeley County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Horace
    • Scotia
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
    • Greeley Center
      (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
      • Greeley Center is located in Greeley County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Greeley Center
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 421 people
    • Greeley
      (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
    • Brayton
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
      • Brayton is located in Greeley County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brayton
  • Howard County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Vinton, with the one closest to Vinton listed first.
    • Dannevirke
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Dannevirke is located in Howard County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dannevirke
    • Cotesfield
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
      • Cotesfield is located in Howard County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cotesfield
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 49 people
    • Elba
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Farwell
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Loup County
    • Taylor
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Sherman County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Vinton, with the one closest to Vinton listed first.
    • North Loup City
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
      • North Loup City is located in Sherman County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Loup City
    • Loup City
      (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
      • Loup City is located in Sherman County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Loup City
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 960 people
      • Loup City has also been known as:
      • Loup
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Loup City <2>
    • Ashton
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Litchfield
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
    • Rockville
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
  • Wheeler County
    • Ericson
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)

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

Cemeteries Near Vinton ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Vinton.

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

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

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

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

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

  • Ord
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Ord is located in Valley County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ord
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,052 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Ord <2>
  • Olean
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
    • Olean is located in Valley County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Olean
  • Geranium ‑ Historic
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Geranium is located in Valley County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Geranium
  • Elyria
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
  • Arcadia
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
  • Sumter
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
    • Sumter is located in Valley County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sumter
  • North Loup
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
  • Wescott
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
    • Wescott is located in Custer County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wescott
  • Scotia
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
  • Horace ‑ Historic
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
    • Horace is located in Greeley County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Horace
  • Willow Springs ‑ Historic
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
    • Willow Springs is located in Garfield County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Willow Springs
  • Loup City
    (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
    • Loup City is located in Sherman County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Loup City
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 960 people
    • Loup City has also been known as:
    • Loup
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Loup City <2>
  • Continue List   (13 more) ...
    • Burwell
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
    • Belfast
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
      • Belfast is located in Greeley County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Belfast
    • Dannevirke
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Dannevirke is located in Howard County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dannevirke

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Vinton ...

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 89 newspapers that have been published in the area around Vinton.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Vinton. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Vinton and those printed in the larger area surrounding Vinton.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 27 miles [43.5 km]<4> of Vinton.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we like to start with 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 Vinton:

Footnotes ...

<1>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 Vinton, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<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 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.
<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- Vinton) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.