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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 Benton (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 Benton. 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 northeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals were in the next county to the east. 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 east 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.

Benton is located in Crawford County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Crawford County: Huron, Marion, Morrow, Richland, Seneca & Wyandot.

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

  • Crawford County     (The home county of Benton)
  • Hancock County
  • Hardin County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Benton, with the one closest to Benton listed first.
    • Forest
      (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
    • Patterson
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
      • Patterson is located in Hardin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Patterson
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 135 people
    • McVitty
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Grant
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Pfeiffer
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Dunkirk
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
  • Huron County
  • Marion County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Benton, with the one closest to Benton listed first.
    • Morral
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
      • Morral is located in Marion County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Morral
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 382 people
    • Martel
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Caledonia
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
    • Logan ‑ Historic
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
      • Logan is located in Marion County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Logan
    • Ruth
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
    • Marion
      (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
    • Gurley ‑ Historic
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
      • Gurley is located in Marion County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gurley
    • New Bloomington
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
      • New Bloomington is located in Marion County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for New Bloomington
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 511 people
    • Green Camp
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
      • Green Camp is located in Marion County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Green Camp
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 356 people
    • La Rue
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
      • La Rue is located in Marion County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for La Rue
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 711 people
  • Morrow County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Benton, with the one closest to Benton listed first.
    • Iberia
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Blooming Grove
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
    • West Point
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
      • West Point is located in Morrow County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West Point
    • Edison
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Mount Gilead
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Richland County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Benton, with the one closest to Benton listed first.
    • Bethlehem
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
    • Forest ‑ Historic
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
      • Forest is located in Richland County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Forest
    • Plymouth
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
    • Vernon Junction
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
    • Shelby
      (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
    • Shiloh
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
    • Maybee
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
    • Ganges
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
    • Ontario
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
    • Alta
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Sandusky County
  • Seneca County
  • Wood County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Benton, with the one closest to Benton listed first.
    • Bloomdale
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Risingsun
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)
    • West Millgrove
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)
      • West Millgrove is located in Wood County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West Millgrove
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 176 people
    • Eagleville
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Wyandot County

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

Cemeteries Near Benton ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Benton.

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

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Benton, with the one closest to Benton 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.<3>

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

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

  • Deunquat
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
    • Deunquat is located in Wyandot County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Deunquat
  • Lemert
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
  • Plankton
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
    • Plankton is located in Crawford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Plankton
  • Seal
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Seal is located in Wyandot County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Seal
  • Broken Sword
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
  • Lykens
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Lykens is located in Crawford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lykens
  • Sycamore
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Sycamore is located in Wyandot County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sycamore
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 811 people
  • Oceola
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
  • Spore
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Spore is located in Crawford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spore
  • Belle Vernon
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
  • Mexico
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Melmore
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
  • Continue List   (14 more) ...
    • Nevada
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Glenville ‑ Historic
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
      • Glenville is located in Crawford County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Glenville
    • Chatfield
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
      • Chatfield is located in Crawford County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chatfield
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 178 people

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Benton ...

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 62 newspapers that have been published in the area around Benton.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Benton. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Benton and those printed in the larger area surrounding Benton.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 23 miles [37 km]<4> of Benton.

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 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 Benton:

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 Benton, 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' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Benton) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.