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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 Elk City (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 Elk City. 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 doctors 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.

Elk City is located in Beckham 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 Beckham County: Custer, Greer, Harmon, Kiowa, Roger Mills, Washita, Collingsworth (TX) & Wheeler (TX).

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

  • Beckham County     (The home county of Elk City)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Elk City, with the one closest to Elk City listed first.
    • Carter
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Sayre
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Sayre is located in Beckham County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sayre
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 4,435 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Sayre <1>
    • Delhi
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
      • Delhi is located in Beckham County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Delhi
    • Mayfield
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
    • Sweetwater
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
    • Erick
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Custer County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Elk City, with the one closest to Elk City listed first.
    • Carpenter
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
      • Carpenter is located in Custer County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Carpenter
    • Butler
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Clinton
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
    • Arapaho
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
  • Greer County
    • Willow
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
  • Kiowa County
    • Lone Wolf
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
  • Roger Mills County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Elk City, with the one closest to Elk City listed first.
    • Berlin
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
      • Berlin is located in Roger Mills County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Berlin
    • Hammon
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
      • Hammon is located in Roger Mills County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hammon
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 555 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Hammon <1>
    • Cheyenne
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Strong City
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
      • Strong City is located in Roger Mills County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Strong City
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 46 people
    • Roll
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Roll is located in Roger Mills County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Roll
  • Washita County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Elk City, with the one closest to Elk City listed first.
    • Canute
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Burns Flat
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
    • Foss
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
      • Foss is located in Washita County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Foss
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 146 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Foss <1>
    • Dill City
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Sentinel
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Bessie
      (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
    • New Cordell
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
      • 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>
    • Rocky
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)

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

Cemeteries Near Elk City ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Elk City.

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 Elk City - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • East Fairlawn Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
  • Calvary Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
  • Fairlawn Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
  • Fairlawn Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
  • Evergreen Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
  • Grandview Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
  • Hebron Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
  • Merritt Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Thompson Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Thompson Pixlee Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Ural Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
  • Edwardsville Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
  • Continue List   (106 more) ...
    • Holy Family Cemetery
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
    • Carpenter Cemetery
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • Bellview 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.<2>

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

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

  • Hammon
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
    • Hammon is located in Roger Mills County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hammon
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 555 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Hammon <1>
  • Cheyenne
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
  • Delhi
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Delhi is located in Beckham County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Delhi
  • New Cordell
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
    • 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>
  • Arapaho
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
  • Sweetwater
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Elk City ...

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 97 newspapers that have been published in the area around Elk City.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

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

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 Elk City:

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>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 Elk City, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<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 drawn from Point A (ie- Elk City) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.