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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 Bristow (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 Bristow. 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.

Bristow is located in Creek 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 Creek County: Lincoln, Okfuskee, Okmulgee, Pawnee, Payne & Tulsa.

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

  • Creek County     (The home county of Bristow)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Bristow, with the one closest to Bristow listed first.
    • Pulaski ‑ Historic
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
    • Depew
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Slick
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Shamrock
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Milfay
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Kellyville
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Drumright
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Lawrence Creek
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
      • Lawrence Creek is located in Creek County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lawrence Creek
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 144 people
    • Mounds
      (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
    • Silver City
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
      • Silver City is located in Creek County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Silver City
    • Sapulpa
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Mannford
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
    • Kiefer
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
  • Lincoln County
  • Okfuskee County
  • Okmulgee County
  • Osage County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Bristow, with the one closest to Bristow listed first.
    • Pulare ‑ Historic
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
    • Prue
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
  • Pawnee County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Bristow, with the one closest to Bristow listed first.
    • Shady Grove
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
      • Shady Grove is located in Pawnee County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shady Grove
      • Population from the 2010 Census: 2 people
    • Terlton
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
    • Westport
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
      • Westport is located in Pawnee County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Westport
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 309 people
    • Oak Grove
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
    • Jennings
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Leroy
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
    • Mule Barn
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
      • Mule Barn is located in Pawnee County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mule Barn
    • Quay
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Hallett
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
  • Payne County
  • Tulsa County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Bristow, with the one closest to Bristow listed first.
    • Liberty
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
      • Liberty is located in Tulsa County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Liberty
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 219 people
    • Glenpool
      (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
    • Lotsee
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
      • Lotsee is located in Tulsa County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lotsee
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2 people
    • Oakhurst
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Prattville
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Jenks
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Sand Springs
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Garden City
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Garden City is located in Tulsa County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Garden City
    • Kengle
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Kengle is located in Tulsa County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kengle
    • Bixby
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)

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

Cemeteries Near Bristow ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Bristow.

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

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

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

  • Bristow Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
  • Durant Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
  • Harjo Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
  • Magnolia Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
  • County Farm Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
  • Eddie Harry Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Poor Boy Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
  • Oak Hill Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
  • Hanna Brown - Tiger Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
  • Harlinsville Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
  • Bucktrot Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
  • Teddy Brown Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
  • Continue List   (202 more) ...
    • Washburn Cemetery
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Tabor Cemetery
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
    • Provens Cemetery
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)

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

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

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Bristow ...

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 172 newspapers that have been published in the area around Bristow.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Bristow. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Bristow and those printed in the larger area surrounding Bristow.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<4> of Bristow.

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 Bristow:

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 Bristow, 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 things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Bristow) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.