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 Goodwell (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 Goodwell. 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 southwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals were in the next county to the west. 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 west 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.

Goodwell is located in Texas County.

To see how the shape of Oklahoma's counties have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Texas County: Morton (KS), Seward (KS), Stevens (KS), Beaver, Cimarron, Hansford (TX), Ochiltree (TX) & Sherman (TX).

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

• Texas County     (The home county of Goodwell)
  • The following are listed by their distance from Goodwell, with the one closest to Goodwell listed first.
  • Guymon
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Guymon
    • Guymon is located in Texas County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 11,010 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Guymon <1>
  • Texhoma
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Texhoma
    • Texhoma is located in Texas County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 903 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Texhoma <1>
  • Optima
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Optima have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Optima
    • Optima is located in Texas County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 371 people
  • Straight
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Straight
    • Straight is located in Texas County
  • Hardesty
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Hardesty have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hardesty
    • Hardesty is located in Texas County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 209 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Hardesty <1>
  • Hooker
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hooker
    • Hooker is located in Texas County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,843 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Hooker <1>
• Hansford County (TX)
  • Gruver
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Gruver have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gruver
    • Gruver is located in Hansford County (TX)
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,111 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Gruver <1>
• Sherman County (TX)
  • The following are listed by their distance from Goodwell, with the one closest to Goodwell listed first.
  • Texhoma
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Texhoma
    • Texhoma is located in Sherman County (TX)
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 321 people
  • Stratford
    (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stratford
    • Stratford is located in Sherman County (TX)
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,074 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Stratford <1>

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Goodwell ...

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 24 newspapers that have been published in the area around Goodwell.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

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

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we start with 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 Goodwell:

• Websites specific to Oklahoma
  • Jump to Cyndi's List
  • Jump to Family Search
  • Jump to Genealogy Trails
  • Website for the //libraries.ok.gov/state-government/archives-and-records/

• Pages specific to Texas County
  • Jump to Cyndi's List
  • Jump to Family Search
  • Jump to Genealogy Trails

• Genealogy information for nearby counties
  • Hansford County
    • Jump to Cyndi's List
    • Jump to Family Search
    • Jump to Genealogy Trails
  • Sherman County
    • Jump to Cyndi's List
    • Jump to Family Search
    • Jump to Genealogy Trails

• Cemetery Information and Directories for Oklahoma
  • Cemetery Junction: Cemeteries of Oklahoma
  • Cyndi's List
  • Cemeteries of Oklahoma
  • Cemeteries of Texas County
  • FamilySearch.org: Cemeteries of Oklahoma
  • Find-A-Grave: Home Page
  • Interment.net
  • Cemeteries of Oklahoma

Cemeteries Near Goodwell ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Goodwell.

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.

If you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our selection of Genealogy Websites (see below).

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

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

• Goodwell Cemetery
  (Less than 2 miles to the west)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Goodwell Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Goodwell Cemetery
• Frisco Cemetery
  (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Frisco Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Frisco Cemetery
• Bethel Cemetery
  (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Bethel Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Bethel Cemetery
• Elmhurst Cemetery
  (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Elmhurst Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Elmhurst Cemetery
• Roy Cemetery
  (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Roy Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Roy Cemetery
• Carter Cemetery
  (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Carter Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Carter Cemetery
• Trinity Lutheran Cemetery
  (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Trinity Lutheran Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Trinity Lutheran Cemetery
• Lee Cemetery
  (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Lee Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Lee Cemetery
• Optima Cemetery
  (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Optima Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Optima Cemetery
• Banner Cemetery
  (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Banner Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Banner Cemetery
• Baker Cemetery
  (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Baker Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Baker Cemetery
• Keen Cemetery
  (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Keen Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Keen Cemetery
• Continue List   (15 more) ...
  • Camp Cemetery
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Camp Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Camp Cemetery
  • Kuhn Cemetery
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Kuhn Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #98778 <4>
  • Hutsell Cemetery
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Hutsell Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Hutsell Cemetery

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

Off-the-Road Links ...

Unfortunately, we don't know of a website for Goodwell. If you can help, please contact us through our Feedback Page.

The official website for State of Oklahoma: https://www.ok.gov/