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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 Ballou (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 Ballou. 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.

Ballou is located in Mayes 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 Mayes County: Cherokee, Craig, Delaware, Rogers & Wagoner.

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

  • Mayes County     (The home county of Ballou)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Ballou, with the one closest to Ballou listed first.
    • Cedar Crest
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Murphy
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
      • Murphy is located in Mayes County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Murphy
    • Iron Post
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
      • Iron Post is located in Mayes County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Iron Post
    • Pin Oaks Acres
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
      • Pin Oaks Acres is located in Mayes County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pin Oaks Acres
    • Locust Grove
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Sams Corner
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Snake Creek
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Snake Creek is located in Mayes County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Snake Creek
    • Sportsmen Acres
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
      • Sportsmen Acres is located in Mayes County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sportsmen Acres
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 310 people
    • Chouteau
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Mazie
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
    • Pump Back
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Rose
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Adair County
  • Cherokee County
  • Craig County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Ballou, with the one closest to Ballou listed first.
    • Big Cabin
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
    • Ketchum
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
  • Delaware County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Ballou, with the one closest to Ballou listed first.
    • Leach
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
      • Leach is located in Delaware County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Leach
    • Rocky Ford
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
      • Rocky Ford is located in Delaware County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rocky Ford
    • Oaks
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
      • Oaks is located in Delaware County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oaks
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 283 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Oaks <1>
    • Twin Oaks
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
    • Bull Hollow
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Bull Hollow is located in Delaware County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bull Hollow
    • Old Eucha
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Old Eucha is located in Delaware County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Old Eucha
    • Tagg Flats
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Tagg Flats is located in Delaware County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tagg Flats
    • Kansas
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
    • Cloud Creek
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
    • Flint Creek
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
      • Flint Creek is located in Delaware County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Flint Creek
    • Eucha
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
    • New Eucha
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
      • New Eucha is located in Delaware County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for New Eucha
  • Muskogee County
  • Rogers County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Ballou, with the one closest to Ballou listed first.
    • Inola
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
    • Gregory
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
      • Gregory is located in Rogers County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gregory
    • Tiawah
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Tiawah is located in Rogers County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tiawah
    • Justice
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
      • Justice is located in Rogers County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Justice
    • Claremore
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Sequoyah
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Verdigris
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
      • Verdigris is located in Rogers County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Verdigris
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 4,724 people
    • Bushyhead
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Bushyhead is located in Rogers County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bushyhead
    • Foyil
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Chelsea
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Catoosa
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
  • Wagoner County

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

Cemeteries Near Ballou ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Ballou.

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

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

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

  • Haner Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
  • McLain Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
  • Calvalier Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
  • Hogan Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
  • Gray Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
  • Union Mission Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
  • Downing Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
  • Downing Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
  • Peggs Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
  • New Home Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Alberty Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Little Rock Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Continue List   (160 more) ...
    • Bryan Cemetery
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • Sixkiller Cemetery
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Fisher Cemetery
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)

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 Ballou in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Ballou.

  • Keith
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
    • Keith is located in Rogers County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Keith

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

Newspapers Published in Ballou ...

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 51 newspapers that have been published in the area around Ballou.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Ballou, 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 Ballou.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first visit 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 Ballou:

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 Ballou, 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 drawn from Point A (ie- Ballou) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.