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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 Foraker (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 Foraker. 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 and 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.

Foraker is located in Osage 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 Osage County: Chautauqua (KS), Cowley (KS), Kay, Noble, Pawnee, Tulsa & Washington.

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

  • Osage County     (The home county of Foraker)
  • Kay County
  • Pawnee County
    • Ralston
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
  • Chautauqua County (KS)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Foraker, with the one closest to Foraker listed first.
    • Hewins
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
      • Hewins is located in Chautauqua County (KS)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hewins
    • Osro
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Osro is located in Chautauqua County (KS)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Osro
      • Osro has also been known as:
      • Osrow
      • Ozro Falls
      • Ozro
      • Ozrow
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Osro
      • From Foraker to Osro
    • Cedar Vale
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
    • Layton
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Elgin
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
      • Elgin is located in Chautauqua County (KS)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elgin
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 79 people
      • Elgin has also been known as:
      • New Elgin
    • Wauneta
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Gibbs
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Chautauqua
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
    • Rogers
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Jonesburg ‑ Historic
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
      • Jonesburg is located in Chautauqua County (KS)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jonesburg
    • Sedan
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Peru
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Peru is located in Chautauqua County (KS)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Peru
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 125 people
  • Cowley County (KS)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Foraker, with the one closest to Foraker listed first.
    • Taussig
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
      • Taussig is located in Cowley County (KS)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Taussig
    • Maple City
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Hooser
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
    • Cameron
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Silverdale
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Silverdale is located in Cowley County (KS)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Silverdale
    • Vinton
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Dexter
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
    • Eaton
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Parkerfield
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Parkerfield is located in Cowley County (KS)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Parkerfield
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 412 people
    • Arkansas City
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Tisdale
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Tisdale is located in Cowley County (KS)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tisdale

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

Cemeteries Near Foraker ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Foraker.

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

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

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

  • Foraker Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
  • St. Johns Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Rock Creek Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
  • Patton Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
  • Ozro Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Washunga Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
  • Burbank Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
  • Pappin Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Wilson Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Rose Dale Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
  • De Bask Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Cedar Vale Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
  • Continue List   (70 more) ...
    • Grandview Cemetery
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
    • District 1 Cemetery
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Cedar Creek Cemetery
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)

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

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

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Foraker ...

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 67 newspapers that have been published in the area around Foraker.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

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

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 helpful 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 Foraker:

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 Foraker, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<3>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Foraker) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.