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 Coal Springs (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 Coal Springs. 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.

Name Variations for Coal Springs ...

When searching records, keep in mind that names and their spelling can change over time. Our sources include documents like maps, railroad schedules, Travel, Express and Shipping Guides. Many of these documents date from the 1800's and it's common to find spelling differences.

Although we can't give a definitive list, hopefully the following will give you a feel for the variations that might have occurred.

For example, a typical abbreviation for Coal Springs: Coal Spgs. (or less commonly used: Coal Spngs. or Coal Sprngs.)

If you have information about these names (such as the reason for the change, date of change, the origin of the name), please Contact Us.

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 southwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals were in the next county to the west. 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 west 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.

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

• Perkins County     (The home county of Coal Springs)
  • The following are listed by their distance from Coal Springs, with the one closest to Coal Springs listed first.
  • Meadow
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Meadow
    • Meadow is located in Perkins County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Meadow <1>
  • Usta
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
    • 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
    (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
    • 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>
  • Shadehill
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shadehill
    • Shadehill is located in Perkins County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Shadehill <1>
  • Summerville
    (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Summerville have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Summerville
    • Summerville is located in Perkins County
    • Estimated population in 2014: 2,118 people
• Meade County
  • Faith
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
    • 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>
• Ziebach County
  • The following are listed by their distance from Coal Springs, with the one closest to Coal Springs listed first.
  • Glad Valley
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Glad Valley
    • Glad Valley is located in Ziebach County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Glad Valley <1>
  • Iron Lightning
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Iron Lightning have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Iron Lightning
    • Iron Lightning is located in Ziebach County
    • Estimated population in 2014: 412 people
  • Red Elm ‑ Historic
    (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Red Elm have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Red Elm
    • Red Elm is located in Ziebach County

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

Newspapers Published in Coal Springs ...

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 12 newspapers that have been published in the area around Coal Springs.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Coal Springs, there are papers which were published within 28 miles [45.1 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Coal Springs.

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 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 Coal Springs:

• 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
  • Ziebach 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 Coal Springs ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Coal Springs.

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

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

• Meadow Gallaway Cemetery
  (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Meadow Gallaway Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Meadow Gallaway Cemetery
• Chance Cemetery
  (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Chance Cemetery
  • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2167721 <4>
• Bison Cemetery
  (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
  • 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
• Sein Cemetery
  (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Sein Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Sein Cemetery
• Norwegian Cemetery
  (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Norwegian Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Norwegian Cemetery
• Iron Lightning Cemetery
  (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Iron Lightning Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Iron Lightning Cemetery
• Date Cemetery
  (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
  • 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
• St. Luke Cemetery
  (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Luke Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Luke Cemetery
• Pleasant Valley Cemetery
  (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Pleasant Valley Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Pleasant Valley Cemetery
• St. Joseph Cemetery
  (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
  • 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
• Faith Cemetery
  (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
  • 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

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

Off-the-Road Links ...

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

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