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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 Belva (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 Belva. 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 northwest 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 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.

Belva is located in Woodward 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 Woodward County: Dewey, Ellis, Harper, Major & Woods.

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

  • Woodward County     (The home county of Belva)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Belva, with the one closest to Belva listed first.
    • Quinlan
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
      • Quinlan is located in Woodward County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Quinlan
    • Curtis
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Curtis is located in Woodward County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Curtis
    • Mooreland
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
    • Richmond
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
      • Richmond is located in Woodward County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Richmond
    • Mutual
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Woodward
      (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
    • Sharon
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Alfalfa County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Belva, with the one closest to Belva listed first.
    • Aline
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
    • Carmen
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
  • Dewey County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Belva, with the one closest to Belva listed first.
    • Seiling
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
    • Vici
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
  • Major County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Belva, with the one closest to Belva listed first.
    • Phroso ‑ Historic
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
      • Phroso is located in Major County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Phroso
    • Chester
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
    • Orienta
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
    • Cleo Springs
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
  • Woods County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Belva, with the one closest to Belva listed first.
    • Heman
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
      • Heman is located in Woods County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Heman
    • Waynoka
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Avard
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
      • Avard is located in Woods County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Avard
    • Haskew ‑ Historic
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
      • Haskew is located in Woods County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Haskew
    • Freedom
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Hopeton
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Dacoma
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Alva
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
      • Alva is located in Woods County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Alva
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 4,882 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Alva <1>

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

Cemeteries Near Belva ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Belva.

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

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

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

  • West Creek Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
  • Red Top Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
  • Union Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Lone Star Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
  • Highland Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
  • Waynoka Municipal Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
  • Curtis Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
  • Liberty Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Walnut Grove Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
  • Cedardale Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
  • Connor Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Memorial Hill Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Continue List   (63 more) ...

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.<4>

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

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

  • Heman
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Heman is located in Woods County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Heman
  • Waynoka
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
  • Curtis
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Curtis is located in Woodward County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Curtis
  • Alston
    (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
    • Alston is located in Woodward County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Alston
  • Cora
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
    • Cora is located in Woods County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cora
  • Richmond
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
    • Richmond is located in Woodward County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Richmond
  • Noel
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Noel is located in Woods County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Noel
  • Alva
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Alva is located in Woods County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Alva
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 4,882 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Alva <1>
  • Aline
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)

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

Newspapers Published in Belva ...

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 87 newspapers that have been published in the area around Belva.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Belva, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Belva.

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 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 Belva:

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>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or 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- Belva) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<4>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 Belva, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.