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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 Fox Ridge (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 Fox Ridge. 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 Fox Ridge ...

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 Fox Ridge: Fox Rdg. (or less commonly used: Fox Rdge. or Fox Ridg.)

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 southeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors and 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.

Fox Ridge is located in Meade 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 Meade County: Butte, Haakon, Lawrence, Pennington & Ziebach.

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

  • Meade County     (The home county of Fox Ridge)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Fox Ridge, with the one closest to Fox Ridge listed first.
    • Opal
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Cedar Canyon
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Cedar Canyon. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cedar Canyon
      • Cedar Canyon is located in Meade County
    • Mud Butte
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
    • Red Owl
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Red Owl
      • Red Owl is located in Meade County
    • Fairpoint
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Fairpoint have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fairpoint
      • Fairpoint is located in Meade County
    • Faith
      (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Faith have been provided by the GNIS.<3> 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>
    • Marcus
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Enning
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Enning have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Enning
      • Enning is located in Meade County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Enning <1>
    • White Owl
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
    • Union Center
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
  • Perkins County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Fox Ridge, with the one closest to Fox Ridge listed first.
    • Usta
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Usta have been provided by the GNIS.<3> 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
    • Zeona
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)

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

Cemeteries Near Fox Ridge ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Fox Ridge.

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

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

  • Backes Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Backes Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Backes Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Plum Draw Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Plum Draw Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Plum Draw Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Fairpoint Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Fairpoint Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Fairpoint Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Pleasant Valley Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Pleasant Valley Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Pleasant Valley Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Date Cemetery
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Date Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Date Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • St. Joseph Cemetery
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Joseph Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Joseph Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Ruby Cemetery
    (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Ruby Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Ruby Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Faith Cemetery
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Faith Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Faith Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • White Owl Cemetery
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the White Owl Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the White Owl Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.

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

Newspapers Published in Fox Ridge ...

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 9 newspapers that have been published in the area around Fox Ridge.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Fox Ridge, there are papers which were published within 23 miles [37 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Fox Ridge.

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 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 Fox Ridge:

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

The official website for Meade County: www.meadecounty.org/

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

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>An 'estimated' location is one where we have been given GPS coordinates, but are unable to verify the accuracy of those coordinates. That said, we have some confidence that we have placed the marker near the actual location. A typical reason for being unable to verify a location is that it might be on private property or maybe historic and gone without an obvious trace.
<3>The location has been supplied by the Geographic Names Information System - which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While these values should be definitive, we found that accuracy can vary and you should double-check the location if accuracy is required.
<4>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Fox Ridge) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Fox Ridge. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 44.9944, Longitude: -102.5254       In this case, the coordinates for Fox Ridge have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).




 

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In closing, please keep in mind that we can not guarantee the accuracy or timeliness of the information on this website, so use with care. We encourage you to double-check the information that is critical to you.

If you've found an error or have additional information that you would like to share, please don't hesitate to write: Click here to contact us.

This page was last modified/updated: 29 Apr 2025