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A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
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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 Babbs (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 Babbs. 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 southeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors were in the next county to the east. 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 east 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.

Babbs is located in Kiowa County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Kiowa County: Beckham, Caddo, Comanche, Greer, Jackson, Tillman & Washita.

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

  • Kiowa County     (The home county of Babbs)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Babbs, with the one closest to Babbs listed first.
    • Hobart
      (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Roosevelt
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Lone Wolf
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
    • Cooperton
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Cooperton is located in Kiowa County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cooperton
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 15 people
    • Lugert ‑ Historic
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
      • Lugert is located in Kiowa County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lugert
    • Gotebo
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Mountain Park
      (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
    • Mountain View
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Snyder
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
  • Caddo County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Babbs, with the one closest to Babbs listed first.
    • Alden
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
      • Alden is located in Caddo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Alden
    • Carnegie
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Comanche County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Babbs, with the one closest to Babbs listed first.
    • Indiahoma
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Meers
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
    • The Holy City
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
      • The Holy City is located in Comanche County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for The Holy City
  • Greer County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Babbs, with the one closest to Babbs listed first.
    • Granite
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
    • Hester
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
      • Hester is located in Greer County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hester
    • Mangum
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
    • Willow
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
  • Jackson County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Babbs, with the one closest to Babbs listed first.
    • Blair
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Friendship
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
      • Friendship is located in Jackson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Friendship
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 22 people
    • Headrick
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
    • Martha
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Altus
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
      • Altus is located in Jackson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Altus
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 18,162 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Altus <1>
    • Humphreys
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
      • Humphreys is located in Jackson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Humphreys
    • Victory
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Victory is located in Jackson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Victory
  • Tillman County
    • Manitou
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
  • Washita County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Babbs, with the one closest to Babbs listed first.
    • Rocky
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
    • Sentinel
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Dill City
      (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
    • New Cordell
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
      • New Cordell is located in Washita County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for New Cordell
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,708 people
      • New Cordell has also been known as:
      • Cordell
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for New Cordell <1>
    • Burns Flat
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
    • Bessie
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)

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

Cemeteries Near Babbs ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Babbs.

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

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

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

  • Hobart Rose Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
  • Roosevelt Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
  • Wyatt Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Lone Wolf Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
  • Pleasant Ridge Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
  • Union Dale Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
  • Salem Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
  • Warren Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Gotebo Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Rainey Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Centerville Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
  • Springhill Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Continue List   (80 more) ...
    • Lone Star Cemetery
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
    • Rainy Mtn. Church Cemetery (New)
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Rainy Mtn. Church Cemetery (Old)
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rainy Mtn. Church Cemetery (Old)
      • The Rainy Mtn. Church Cemetery (Old) has also been known as:
      • Rainy Mtn. Kiowa Indian Baptist Church Cemetery (Old)
      • Rainy Mtn. Old 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.<3>

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

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

  • Rainy ‑ Historic
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Rainy is located in Washita County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rainy
  • Martha
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
  • Cloud Chief
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Cloud Chief is located in Washita County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cloud Chief
  • New Cordell
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
    • New Cordell is located in Washita County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for New Cordell
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,708 people
    • New Cordell has also been known as:
    • Cordell
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for New Cordell <1>
  • Mangum
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
  • Altus
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Altus is located in Jackson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Altus
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 18,162 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Altus <1>
  • Victory
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Victory is located in Jackson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Victory

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

Newspapers Published in Babbs ...

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 117 newspapers that have been published in the area around Babbs.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Babbs, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Babbs.

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 Babbs:

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 Babbs, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<4>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- Babbs) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.