RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of South Dakota >> Custer County >> Custer >> Genealogy HelperIndex...

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 Custer (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 Custer. 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 southwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors 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.

Custer is located in Custer County and is the County Seat.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Custer County: Fall River, Oglala Lakota, Pennington, Niobrara (WY) & Weston (WY).

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

  • Custer County     (The home county of Custer)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Custer, with the one closest to Custer listed first.
    • Berne
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
      • Berne is located in Custer County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Berne
    • Sanator
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
      • Sanator is located in Custer County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sanator
      • Estimated population in 2014: 1,350 people
    • Fourmile
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
      • Fourmile is located in Custer County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fourmile
      • Estimated population in 2014: 70 people
    • State Game Lodge
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
      • State Game Lodge is located in Custer County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for State Game Lodge
      • Estimated population in 2014: 29 people
    • Pringle
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
    • Spokane ‑ Historic
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Fairburn
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
    • Hermosa
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
    • Ivanhoe ‑ Historic
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
      • Ivanhoe is located in Custer County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ivanhoe
      • Estimated population in 2014: 144 people
    • Buffalo Gap
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
    • Dewey
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Fall River County
  • Lawrence County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Custer, with the one closest to Custer listed first.
    • Merritt
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
      • Merritt is located in Lawrence County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Merritt
      • Estimated population in 2014: 175 people
    • Diamond City ‑ Historic
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
      • Diamond City is located in Lawrence County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Diamond City
    • Gregory ‑ Historic
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
      • Gregory is located in Lawrence County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gregory
      • Estimated population in 2014: 1,264 people
    • Nahant
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
    • Nemo
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
    • Tomahawk
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
      • Tomahawk is located in Lawrence County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tomahawk
      • Estimated population in 2014: 36 people
  • Meade County
  • Pennington County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Custer, with the one closest to Custer listed first.
    • Hill City
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
    • Keystone
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Frenchtown ‑ Historic
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
      • Frenchtown is located in Pennington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Frenchtown
      • Estimated population in 2014: 276 people
    • Harney
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
      • Harney is located in Pennington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harney
      • Estimated population in 2014: 64 people
    • Hayward ‑ Historic
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Hayward is located in Pennington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hayward
    • Sheridan ‑ Historic
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Sheridan is located in Pennington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sheridan
      • Estimated population in 2014: 447 people
    • Redfern
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
      • Redfern is located in Pennington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Redfern
    • Rockerville
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Stratosphere Bowl
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
      • Stratosphere Bowl is located in Pennington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stratosphere Bowl
      • Estimated population in 2014: 72 people
    • Mystic
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
    • Pactola ‑ Historic
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
    • Colonial Pine Hills
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
      • Colonial Pine Hills is located in Pennington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Colonial Pine Hills
  • Weston County (WY)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Custer, with the one closest to Custer listed first.
    • Clifton ‑ Historic
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
      • Clifton is located in Weston County (WY)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clifton
    • Hill View Heights
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
      • Hill View Heights is located in Weston County (WY)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hill View Heights
    • Spencer ‑ Historic
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
    • Newcastle
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)

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

Cemeteries Near Custer ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Custer.

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

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Custer, with the one closest to Custer 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.<3>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Custer had a population of 790 people in 1895 with a post office and no railroad service. In 2020, Custer had a population of 1,926 people.

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

  • Berne
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Berne is located in Custer County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Berne
  • Oreville
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • Oreville is located in Pennington County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oreville
  • Pringle
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
  • Hill City
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
  • Spokane ‑ Historic
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Hayward ‑ Historic
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Hayward is located in Pennington County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hayward
  • Sheridan ‑ Historic
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Sheridan is located in Pennington County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sheridan
    • Estimated population in 2014: 447 people
  • Argyle
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
    • Argyle is located in Custer County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Argyle
  • Redfern
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
    • Redfern is located in Pennington County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Redfern
  • Rockerville
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
  • Ivanhoe ‑ Historic
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
    • Ivanhoe is located in Custer County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ivanhoe
    • Estimated population in 2014: 144 people
  • Fairburn
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
  • Continue List   (15 more) ...

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Custer ...

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 57 newspapers that have been published in the area around Custer.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Custer. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Custer and those printed in the larger area surrounding Custer.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<4> of Custer.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first visit 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 Custer:

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