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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 Shawnee (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 Shawnee. 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 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.

Shawnee is located in Pottawatomie County and is the County Seat.

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 Pottawatomie County: Cleveland, Lincoln, McClain, Oklahoma, Pontotoc & Seminole.

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

  • Pottawatomie County     (The home county of Shawnee)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Shawnee, with the one closest to Shawnee listed first.
    • Tecumseh
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • Johnson
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Johnson is located in Pottawatomie County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Johnson
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 446 people
    • Bethel Acres
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
      • Bethel Acres is located in Pottawatomie County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bethel Acres
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 3,262 people
    • Aydelotte
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • Dale
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Brooksville
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
      • Brooksville is located in Pottawatomie County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brooksville
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 57 people
    • Earlsboro
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
    • McLoud
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
      • McLoud is located in Pottawatomie County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for McLoud
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 4,800 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for McLoud <1>
    • Bellemont
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Pink
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Pink is located in Pottawatomie County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pink
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,187 people
    • Macomb
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
      • Macomb is located in Pottawatomie County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Macomb
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 33 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Macomb <1>
    • Maud
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Saint Louis
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
  • Cleveland County
  • Lincoln County
  • Okfuskee County
  • Oklahoma County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Shawnee, with the one closest to Shawnee listed first.
    • Newalla
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
    • Harrah
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
    • Woods
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
    • Choctaw
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Nicoma Park
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Jones
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Midwest City
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
    • Luther
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Spencer
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Del City
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
    • Midway Village
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
      • Midway Village is located in Oklahoma County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Midway Village
  • Seminole County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Shawnee, with the one closest to Shawnee listed first.
    • Seminole
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Bowlegs
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
    • Lima
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
      • Lima is located in Seminole County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lima
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 51 people
    • Cromwell
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
    • Konawa
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
    • Wewoka
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)

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

Cemeteries Near Shawnee ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Shawnee.

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

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

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

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>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that in 1895, Shawnee had a post office and no railroad service. In 2020, Shawnee had a population of 31,555 people.

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

  • Tecumseh
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
  • Dale
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
  • Bellemont
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Clifton
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
    • Clifton is located in Lincoln County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clifton
  • Romulus
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
    • Romulus is located in Pottawatomie County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Romulus
  • Stella
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
    • Stella is located in Cleveland County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stella
  • Anderson
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
    • Anderson is located in Pottawatomie County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Anderson
  • Etowah
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Etowah is located in Cleveland County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Etowah
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 93 people
  • Denver
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
    • Denver is located in Cleveland County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Denver
  • Arlington
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Arlington is located in Lincoln County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Arlington
  • Choctaw
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Sacred Heart
    (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
  • Continue List   (9 more) ...
    • Franklin
      (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
    • Warwick
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
    • Eason
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
      • Eason is located in Pottawatomie County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eason

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Shawnee ...

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 216 newspapers that have been published in the area around Shawnee.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

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

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we begin 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 Shawnee:

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