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 Bixby (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 Bixby. 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 southeast 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 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 east 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.

Bixby is located in Perkins County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Perkins County: Adams (ND), Butte, Corson, Harding, Meade & Ziebach.

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

• Perkins County     (The home county of Bixby)
  • The following are listed by their distance from Bixby, with the one closest to Bixby listed first.
  • Zeona
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Zeona
    • Zeona is located in Perkins County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Zeona <1>
  • Usta
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Usta have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Usta
    • Usta is located in Perkins County
    • Estimated population in 2014: 22 people
  • Bison
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Bison have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bison
    • Bison is located in Perkins County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 320 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Bison <1>
  • Strool
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Strool have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Strool
    • Strool is located in Perkins County
    • Estimated population in 2014: 52 people
  • Prairie City
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Prairie City have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Prairie City
    • Prairie City is located in Perkins County
    • Population from the 2010 Census: 23 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Prairie City <1>
• Meade County
  • The following are listed by their distance from Bixby, with the one closest to Bixby listed first.
  • Cedar Canyon
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Cedar Canyon have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cedar Canyon
    • Cedar Canyon is located in Meade County
  • Opal
    (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Opal
    • Opal is located in Meade County
    • Estimated population in 2014: 30 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Opal <1>
  • Mud Butte
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mud Butte
    • Mud Butte is located in Meade County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Mud Butte <1>
  • Faith
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Faith have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Faith
    • Faith is located in Meade County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 410 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Faith <1>
  • Fairpoint
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Fairpoint have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fairpoint
    • Fairpoint is located in Meade County

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

Newspapers Published in Bixby ...

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 14 newspapers that have been published in the area around Bixby.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Bixby, there are papers which were published within 27 miles [43.5 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Bixby.

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 helpful 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 Bixby:

• Websites specific to South Dakota
  • Jump to Cyndi's List
  • Jump to Family Search
  • Jump to Genealogy Trails
  • Website for the South Dakota State Archives

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

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

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

Cemeteries Near Bixby ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Bixby.

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

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

• Date Cemetery
  (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Date Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Date Cemetery
• Backes Cemetery
  (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Backes Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Backes Cemetery
• Ruby Cemetery
  (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Ruby Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Ruby Cemetery
• Chance Cemetery
  (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Chance Cemetery
  • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2167721 <4>
• Plum Draw Cemetery
  (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Plum Draw Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Plum Draw Cemetery
• St. Joseph Cemetery
  (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Joseph Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Joseph Cemetery
• Bison Cemetery
  (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Bison Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Bison Cemetery
• Faith Cemetery
  (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Faith Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Faith Cemetery
• Fairpoint Cemetery
  (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Fairpoint Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Fairpoint Cemetery

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

Off-the-Road Links ...

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

The official website for State of South Dakota: sd.gov/