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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 Taylor (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 Taylor. 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 northwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals and doctors were in the next county to the west. 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 west 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.

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

  • Beckham County     (The home county of Taylor)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Taylor, with the one closest to Taylor listed first.
    • Carter
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Elk City
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
    • Sayre
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
      • 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
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
      • Delhi is located in Beckham County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Delhi
    • Erick
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
    • Mayfield
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
  • Custer County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Taylor, with the one closest to Taylor listed first.
    • Carpenter
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
      • Carpenter is located in Custer County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Carpenter
    • Butler
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
    • Clinton
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Greer County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Taylor, with the one closest to Taylor listed first.
    • Willow
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Granite
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
    • Bloomington
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Bloomington is located in Greer County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bloomington
    • Jester
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
      • Jester is located in Greer County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jester
    • Mangum
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
    • Reed
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Reed is located in Greer County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Reed
  • Kiowa County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Taylor, with the one closest to Taylor listed first.
    • Lone Wolf
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Hobart
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Lugert ‑ Historic
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
      • Lugert is located in Kiowa County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lugert
  • Roger Mills County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Taylor, with the one closest to Taylor listed first.
    • Berlin
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
      • Berlin is located in Roger Mills County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Berlin
    • Hammon
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
      • 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>
    • Cheyenne
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Washita County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Taylor, with the one closest to Taylor listed first.
    • Burns Flat
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Canute
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Sentinel
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Dill City
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
    • Foss
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
      • Foss is located in Washita County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Foss
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 146 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Foss <1>
    • Rocky
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
    • New Cordell
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
      • New Cordell is located in Washita County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for New Cordell
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,708 people
      • New Cordell has also been known as:
      • Cordell
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for New Cordell <1>
    • Bessie
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)

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

Cemeteries Near Taylor ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Taylor.

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

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

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

  • Clark Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
  • Ural Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
  • Poarch Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
  • Port Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
  • Bellview Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Retrop Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
  • Carter Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Carter Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Carter Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located less than 2 miles<2> to the northwest of Carter.
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #98108 <3>
  • Hebron Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Evergreen Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
  • Merritt Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Spring Creek Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
  • Pleasant Valley Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
  • Continue List   (97 more) ...
    • Huckleby Cemetery
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Sentinel Cemetery
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
    • South Burns 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 Taylor in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Taylor.

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

  • Delhi
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
    • Delhi is located in Beckham County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Delhi
  • Bloomington
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Bloomington is located in Greer County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bloomington
  • New Cordell
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
    • New Cordell is located in Washita County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for New Cordell
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,708 people
    • New Cordell has also been known as:
    • Cordell
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for New Cordell <1>
  • Jester
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Jester is located in Greer County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jester
  • Rainy ‑ Historic
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
    • Rainy is located in Washita County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rainy
  • Mangum
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
  • Hammon
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
    • 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>
  • Reed
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Reed is located in Greer County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Reed

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

Newspapers Published in Taylor ...

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 132 newspapers that have been published in the area around Taylor.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Taylor, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<2>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Taylor.

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 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 Taylor:

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 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Taylor) 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 Taylor, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.