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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 East Lyman (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 East Lyman. 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.

East Lyman is located in Lyman County.

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 Lyman County: Brule, Buffalo, Gregory, Hughes, Hyde, Jones, Mellette, Stanley & Tripp.

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

  • Lyman County     (The home county of East Lyman)
    • The following are listed by their distance from East Lyman, with the one closest to East Lyman listed first.
    • Reliance
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
    • Lyman
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
      • Lyman is located in Lyman County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lyman
      • Estimated population in 2014: 43 people
    • Oacoma
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Lower Brule
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
    • Kennebec
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
    • Iona
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
    • Presho
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
  • Brule County
    • The following are listed by their distance from East Lyman, with the one closest to East Lyman listed first.
    • Chamberlain
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Pukwana
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
    • Ola
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Ola is located in Brule County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ola
      • Estimated population in 2014: 108 people
    • Lyonville
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
      • Lyonville is located in Brule County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lyonville
      • Estimated population in 2014: 49 people
  • Buffalo County
    • The following are listed by their distance from East Lyman, with the one closest to East Lyman listed first.
    • Fort Thompson
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Crow Creek
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
      • Crow Creek is located in Buffalo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crow Creek
    • Shelby
      (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
      • Shelby is located in Buffalo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shelby
      • Estimated population in 2014: 96 people
    • Gann Valley
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
  • Hyde County
    • Stephan
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
  • Tripp County
    • The following are listed by their distance from East Lyman, with the one closest to East Lyman listed first.
    • Hamill
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
    • Ideal
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)

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

Cemeteries Near East Lyman ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of East Lyman.

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 East Lyman - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • St. Marys Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
  • Reliance Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
  • Trinity Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
  • Oacoma Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Riverview Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Catholic Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Catholic Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Catholic Cemetery is located less than 2 miles<2> to the west of Fort Thompson.
    • The Catholic Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Lake View Cemetery
    • St. Joseph's Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #97570 <3>
  • St. Joseph Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
  • Holy Comforter Episcopal Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
  • Hillsdale Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
  • Kennebec Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
  • St. Michaels Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
  • St. John the Baptist Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for St. John the Baptist Cemetery
    • The St. John the Baptist Cemetery has also been known as:
    • St. John the Baptist Episcopal Cemetery
    • St. John's Cemetery
    • St. John's Episcopal Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2168051 <3>
  • Continue List   (24 more) ...
    • Red Hill Cemetery
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Crow Creek Cemetery
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
    • Prairie View Cemetery
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Prairie View Cemetery
      • To give a relative sense of its location, the Prairie View Cemetery is located 8 miles [12.9 km]<2> to the south of Kennebec.

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 East Lyman in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of East Lyman.

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

  • Lyman
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
    • Lyman is located in Lyman County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lyman
    • Estimated population in 2014: 43 people
  • Oacoma
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Chamberlain
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Lower Brule
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
  • Crow Creek
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
    • Crow Creek is located in Buffalo County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crow Creek
  • Pukwana
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
  • Ola
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Ola is located in Brule County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ola
    • Estimated population in 2014: 108 people
  • Stephan
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
  • Presho
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
  • Lyonville
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
    • Lyonville is located in Brule County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lyonville
    • Estimated population in 2014: 49 people

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

Newspapers Published in East Lyman ...

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 27 newspapers that have been published in the area around East Lyman.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of East Lyman, 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 East Lyman.

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 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 East Lyman:

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' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- East Lyman) 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 East Lyman, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.