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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 Prentiss (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 Prentiss. 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 and 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.

Prentiss 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 Prentiss. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Prentiss:

  • Beckham County     (The home county of Prentiss)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Prentiss, with the one closest to Prentiss listed first.
    • Mayfield
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Sweetwater
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Erick
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
    • Sayre
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
      • 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
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Delhi is located in Beckham County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Delhi
    • Texola
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Carter
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Elk City
      (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
  • Custer County
    • Carpenter
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
      • Carpenter is located in Custer County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Carpenter
  • Greer County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Prentiss, with the one closest to Prentiss listed first.
    • Jester
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
      • Jester is located in Greer County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jester
    • Bloomington
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
      • Bloomington is located in Greer County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bloomington
    • Willow
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Roger Mills County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Prentiss, with the one closest to Prentiss listed first.
    • Berlin
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Berlin is located in Roger Mills County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Berlin
    • Cheyenne
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
    • Reydon
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
      • Reydon is located in Roger Mills County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Reydon
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 205 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Reydon <1>
    • Strong City
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
      • Strong City is located in Roger Mills County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Strong City
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 46 people
    • Roll
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
      • Roll is located in Roger Mills County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Roll
    • Hammon
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
      • 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>
  • Washita County
    • Canute
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
  • Wheeler County (TX)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Prentiss, with the one closest to Prentiss listed first.
    • Allison
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
    • Twitty
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
      • Twitty is located in Wheeler County (TX)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Twitty
    • Shamrock
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Shamrock is located in Wheeler County (TX)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shamrock
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,720 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Shamrock <1>
    • Wheeler
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
      • Wheeler is located in Wheeler County (TX)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wheeler
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,456 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Wheeler <1>
    • Zybach ‑ Historic
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Zybach is located in Wheeler County (TX)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Zybach

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

Cemeteries Near Prentiss ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Prentiss.

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

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

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

  • Buffalo Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Buffalo Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Buffalo Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located 12 miles [19.3 km]<2> to the northwest of Sayre.
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #98054 <3>
  • Lone Oak Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
  • Wayland Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
  • Mayfield Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
  • Salem Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
  • Brookside Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Pioneer Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
  • Mulberry Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
  • Davis Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Sacred Heart Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
  • Rosehill Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Sayre Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Continue List   (57 more) ...
    • Dempsey Cemetery
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
    • Erick Cemetery
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
    • Sayre - Doxey Cemetery
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)

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.<4>

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

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

  • Sweetwater
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Delhi
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Delhi is located in Beckham County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Delhi
  • Cheyenne
    (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
  • Jester
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
    • Jester is located in Greer County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jester
  • Bloomington
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Bloomington is located in Greer County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bloomington
  • Aberdeen
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Aberdeen is located in Collingsworth County (TX)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Aberdeen

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

Newspapers Published in Prentiss ...

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 48 newspapers that have been published in the area around Prentiss.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Prentiss, there are papers which were published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<2>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Prentiss.

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 professional and volunteer 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 Prentiss:

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>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- Prentiss) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<3>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.
<4>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 Prentiss, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.