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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 Alva (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 Alva. 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.

Alva is located in Woods County and is the County Seat.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Woods County: Barber (KS), Comanche (KS), Alfalfa, Harper, Major & Woodward.

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

  • Woods County     (The home county of Alva)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Alva, with the one closest to Alva listed first.
    • Hopeton
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Capron
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Capron
      • Capron is located in Woods County
      • Population from the 2010 Census: 23 people
    • Avard
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Avard
      • Avard is located in Woods County
    • Dacoma
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Waynoka
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Waynoka have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Waynoka
      • Waynoka is located in Woods County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 902 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Waynoka <1>
    • Freedom
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Freedom have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Freedom
      • Freedom is located in Woods County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 284 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Freedom <1>
  • Alfalfa County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Alva, with the one closest to Alva listed first.
    • Ingersoll
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ingersoll
      • Ingersoll is located in Alfalfa County
    • Burlington
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Burlington have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Burlington
      • Burlington is located in Alfalfa County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 160 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Burlington <1>
    • Lambert
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lambert
      • Lambert is located in Alfalfa County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 6 people
    • Yewed
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Yewed
      • Yewed is located in Alfalfa County
    • Cherokee
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
    • Carmen
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Byron
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Byron have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Byron
      • Byron is located in Alfalfa County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 35 people
    • Amorita
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Amorita have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Amorita
      • Amorita is located in Alfalfa County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 38 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Amorita <1>
    • Aline
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
    • Vining
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Vining
      • Vining is located in Alfalfa County
    • Jet
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jet
      • Jet is located in Alfalfa County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 218 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Jet <1>
    • Helena
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Helena have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Helena
      • Helena is located in Alfalfa County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,417 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Helena <1>
  • Major County
    • Cleo Springs
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Cleo Springs have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cleo Springs
      • Cleo Springs is located in Major County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 331 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Cleo Springs <1>
  • Barber County (KS)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Alva, with the one closest to Alva listed first.
    • Hardtner
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
    • Stubbs
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stubbs
      • Stubbs is located in Barber County (KS)
    • Kiowa
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kiowa
      • Kiowa is located in Barber County (KS)
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 917 people
      • Kiowa has also been known as:
      • Kiowa
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Kiowa <1>
    • Eldred ‑ Historic
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Eldred have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eldred
      • Eldred is located in Barber County (KS)
    • Hazelton
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Hazelton have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hazelton
      • Hazelton is located in Barber County (KS)
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 84 people
    • Aetna ‑ Historic
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Aetna
      • Aetna is located in Barber County (KS)
  • Harper County (KS)
    • Waldron
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Waldron have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Waldron
      • Waldron is located in Harper County (KS)
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 10 people

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Alva ...

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 67 newspapers that have been published in the area around Alva.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Alva. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Alva and those printed in the larger area surrounding Alva.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<3> of Alva.

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 Alva:

Cemeteries Near Alva ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Alva.

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

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

  • Alva Municipal Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Alva Municipal Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located outside and to the west of Alva.
    • The Alva Municipal Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Alva City Cemetery
    • Ancient Order of United Workmen (AOUW) Cemetery
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Alva Municipal Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #97863 <4>
  • Sacred Heart Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Sacred Heart Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Sacred Heart Cemetery
  • Lutheran Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Lutheran Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Lutheran Cemetery
  • Manila Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Manila Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Manila Cemetery
  • Avard Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Avard Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Avard Cemetery
  • Union Center Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Union Center Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Union Center Cemetery
  • Short Springs Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Short Springs Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Short Springs Cemetery
  • Liberty Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Liberty Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Liberty Cemetery
  • Star Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Star Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Star Cemetery
  • Capron Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Pleasant View Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Pleasant View Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Pleasant View Cemetery
  • Garrison Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Continue List   (58 more) ...
    • Fairview Cemetery
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
    • Auburn Cemetery
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Keith Cemetery
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Keith Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Keith Cemetery

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 in 1895, Alva had railroad service and no post office. In 2020, Alva had a population of 4,882 people.

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

  • Noel
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Noel have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Noel
    • Noel is located in Woods County
  • Winchester
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Winchester have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Winchester
    • Winchester is located in Woods County
  • Cora
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Cora have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cora
    • Cora is located in Woods County
  • Hardtner
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
  • Cherokee
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
  • Driftwood
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Driftwood have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Driftwood
    • Driftwood is located in Alfalfa County
  • Kiowa
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kiowa
    • Kiowa is located in Barber County (KS)
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 917 people
    • Kiowa has also been known as:
    • Kiowa
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Kiowa <1>
  • Waynoka
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Waynoka have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Waynoka
    • Waynoka is located in Woods County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 902 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Waynoka <1>
  • Eldred ‑ Historic
    (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Eldred have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eldred
    • Eldred is located in Barber County (KS)
  • Heman
    (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Heman have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Heman
    • Heman is located in Woods County
  • Aline
    (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
  • Hazelton
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Hazelton have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hazelton
    • Hazelton is located in Barber County (KS)
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 84 people
  • Continue List   (5 more) ...
    • Aetna ‑ Historic
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Aetna
      • Aetna is located in Barber County (KS)
    • Corwin
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Corwin have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Corwin
      • Corwin is located in Harper County (KS)
    • Helena
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Helena have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Helena
      • Helena is located in Alfalfa County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,417 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Helena <1>

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

The official website for Alva: www.alvaok.org/

The official website for State of Oklahoma: https://www.ok.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 from Point A (ie- Alva) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Alva. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 36.8002, Longitude: -98.6661    
<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 Alva, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024