RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Nebraska >> Dawson County >> Willow Island >> Genealogy HelperIndex...










Learn About
The Commemorative
Quarter for
Nebraska

The Commemorative Quarter for Nebraska





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 Willow Island (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 Willow Island. 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 Willow Island ...

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 Willow Island: Willow Is. (in Canada, 'Isld.' is the more common abbreviation.)

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 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.

Willow Island is located in Dawson 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 Dawson County: Buffalo, Custer, Frontier, Gosper, Lincoln & Phelps.

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

  • Dawson County     (The home county of Willow Island)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Willow Island, with the one closest to Willow Island listed first.
    • Cozad
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Gothenburg
      (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
    • Darr
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Darr
      • Darr is located in Dawson County
    • Farnam
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Lexington
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
    • Eddyville
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
    • Overton
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Overton have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Overton
      • Overton is located in Dawson County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 564 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Overton <1>
    • Sumner
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
  • Custer County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Willow Island, with the one closest to Willow Island listed first.
    • Oconto
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
    • Callaway
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
  • Frontier County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Willow Island, with the one closest to Willow Island listed first.
    • Eustis
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Eustis have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eustis
      • Eustis is located in Frontier County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 369 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Eustis <1>
    • Moorefield
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Orafino
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Orafino
      • Orafino is located in Frontier County
    • Curtis
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Stockville
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Gosper County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Willow Island, with the one closest to Willow Island listed first.
    • Elwood
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Elwood have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elwood
      • Elwood is located in Gosper County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 679 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Elwood <1>
    • Smithfield
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Lincoln County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Willow Island, with the one closest to Willow Island listed first.
    • Brady
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Brady have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brady
      • Brady is located in Lincoln County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 419 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Brady <1>
    • Maxwell
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Maxwell have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Maxwell
      • Maxwell is located in Lincoln County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 289 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Maxwell <1>
    • Bignell
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bignell
      • Bignell is located in Lincoln County

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

Newspapers Published in Willow Island ...

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 76 newspapers that have been published in the area around Willow Island.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Willow Island, there are papers which were published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Willow Island.

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 either 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 Willow Island:

Cemeteries Near Willow Island ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Willow Island.

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Willow Island, with the one closest to Willow Island 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 Willow Island had a population of 39 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service.

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

  • Cozad
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
  • Gothenburg
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
  • Vroman
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Vroman have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Vroman
    • Vroman is located in Lincoln County
  • Farnam
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Eustis
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Eustis have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eustis
    • Eustis is located in Frontier County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 369 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Eustis <1>
  • Etna
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Etna have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Etna
    • Etna is located in Custer County
  • Lexington
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
  • Moorefield
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Elwood
    (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Elwood have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elwood
    • Elwood is located in Gosper County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 679 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Elwood <1>
  • Oconto
    (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
  • Eddyville
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
  • Josselyn
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Josselyn have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Josselyn
    • Josselyn is located in Dawson County
  • Continue List   (9 more) ...
    • Lodi
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Lodi have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lodi
      • Lodi is located in Custer County
    • Smithfield
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Maxwell
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Maxwell have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Maxwell
      • Maxwell is located in Lincoln County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 289 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Maxwell <1>

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

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

The official website for Dawson County: www.dawsoncountyne.net/

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

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 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.
<3>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a '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- Willow Island) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Willow Island. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 40.8887, Longitude: -100.0717    
<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 Willow Island, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

Copyright 2024
All Rights Reserved

Thank you for visiting our website.

In closing, please keep in mind that we can not guarantee the accuracy or timeliness of the information on this website, so use with care. We encourage you to double-check the information that is critical to you.

If you've found an error or have additional information that you would like to share, please don't hesitate to write: Click here to contact us.

This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024