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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 McAlester (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 McAlester. 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.

McAlester is located in Pittsburg County and is the County Seat.

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 Pittsburg County: Atoka, Coal, Haskell, Hughes, Latimer, McIntosh & Pushmataha.

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

  • Pittsburg County     (The home county of McAlester)
  • Atoka County
    • The following are listed by their distance from McAlester, with the one closest to McAlester listed first.
    • Wardville
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Wardville have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wardville
      • Wardville is located in Atoka County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Wardville <2>
    • Daisy
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
  • Haskell County
  • Hughes County
    • The following are listed by their distance from McAlester, with the one closest to McAlester listed first.
    • Stuart
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
    • Lamar
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Lamar have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lamar
      • Lamar is located in Hughes County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 150 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Lamar <2>
    • Dustin
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Dustin have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dustin
      • Dustin is located in Hughes County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 367 people
    • Calvin
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
    • Non
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
    • Horntown
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Horntown have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Horntown
      • Horntown is located in Hughes County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 94 people
    • Gerty
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Gerty have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gerty
      • Gerty is located in Hughes County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 109 people
  • Latimer County
  • McIntosh County
  • Pushmataha County
    • Adel
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Adel. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Adel
      • Adel is located in Pushmataha County
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Adel
      • From McAlester to Adel

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

Cemeteries Near McAlester ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of McAlester.

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 McAlester covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

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

  • Prison Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Prison Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Prison Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Calvary Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Calvary Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Calvary Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Oak Hill Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Oak Hill Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Oak Hill Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • North McAlester Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the North McAlester Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the North McAlester Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Central State Hospital Annex Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Central State Hospital Annex Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Central State Hospital Annex Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Haile Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Haile Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Haile Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Memory Gardens
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Memory Gardens
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Memory Gardens have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Carbon Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Carbon Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Carbon Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Tannehill Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Tannehill Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Tannehill Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Blue Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Blue Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Blue Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Christian Hill Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Christian Hill Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Christian Hill Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • High Hill Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the High Hill Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the High Hill Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Continue List   (123 more) ...
    • Savanna Cemetery
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Red Oak Cemetery
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Red Oak Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Red Oak Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Kemp Cemetery
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Kemp Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Kemp Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of McAlester ...

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 McAlester.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of McAlester. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of McAlester and those printed in the larger area surrounding McAlester.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 27 miles [43.5 km]<4> of McAlester.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we like to start with the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These websites either 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 McAlester:

The official website for McAlester: www.cityofmcalester.com/

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

Footnotes ...

<1>The location has been supplied by the Geographic Names Information System - which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While these values should be definitive, we found that accuracy can vary and you should double-check the location if accuracy is required.
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<3>An 'estimated' location is one where we have been given GPS coordinates, but are unable to verify the accuracy of those coordinates. That said, we have some confidence that we have placed the marker near the actual location. A typical reason for being unable to verify a location is that it might be on private property or maybe historic and gone without an obvious trace.
<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- McAlester) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in McAlester. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 34.9335, Longitude: -95.7702    









 

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In closing, please keep in mind that we can not guarantee the accuracy or timeliness of the information on this website, so use with care. We encourage you to double-check the information that is critical to you.

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This page was last modified/updated: 29 Apr 2025