RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of South Dakota >> Butte County >> Fruitdale >> 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 Fruitdale (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 Fruitdale. 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 doctors 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.

Fruitdale is located in Butte 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 Butte County: Carter (MT), Harding, Lawrence, Meade, Perkins & Crook (WY).

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

  • Butte County     (The home county of Fruitdale)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Fruitdale, with the one closest to Fruitdale listed first.
    • Nisland
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
    • Belle Fourche
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Newell
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
    • Vale
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
    • Castle Rock
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
      • Castle Rock is located in Butte County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Castle Rock
  • Lawrence County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Fruitdale, with the one closest to Fruitdale listed first.
    • Saint Onge
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
    • Whitewood
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
    • North Spearfish
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
      • North Spearfish is located in Lawrence County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Spearfish
      • Population from the 2010 Census: 2,221 people
    • Spearfish
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Crook City
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
      • Crook City is located in Lawrence County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crook City
    • Centennial City ‑ Historic
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
      • Centennial City is located in Lawrence County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Centennial City
    • Deadwood
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
    • Lancaster City ‑ Historic
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
      • Lancaster City is located in Lawrence County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lancaster City
      • Estimated population in 2014: 419 people
    • Carbonate ‑ Historic
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
      • Carbonate is located in Lawrence County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Carbonate
    • Maurice
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
      • Maurice is located in Lawrence County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Maurice
    • Central City
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
      • Central City is located in Lawrence County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Central City
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 155 people
    • Lead
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
      • Lead is located in Lawrence County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lead
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,947 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Lead <1>
    • Flatiron ‑ Historic
      (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
      • Flatiron is located in Lawrence County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Flatiron
      • Estimated population in 2014: 15 people
  • Meade County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Fruitdale, with the one closest to Fruitdale listed first.
    • Sturgis
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Tilford
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Tilford is located in Meade County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tilford
  • Crook County (WY)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Fruitdale, with the one closest to Fruitdale listed first.
    • Beulah
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Aladdin
      (23 miles [37 km] to the west)

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

Cemeteries Near Fruitdale ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Fruitdale.

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

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

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

  • Snoma Finnish Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
  • Danish Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
  • Minnesota Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
  • Pine Slope Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
  • Riverside Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
  • St. Onge Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
  • Little Dane Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
  • Anderson Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
  • Beals Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Beals Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Beals Cemetery is located less than 2 miles<3> to the west of Vale.
    • The Beals Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Old Vale Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #1305736 <2>
  • Hope Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
  • Vale Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
  • Wilson Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
  • Continue List   (20 more) ...

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

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

  • Snoma ‑ Historic
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Snoma is located in Butte County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Snoma
  • Belle Fourche
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
  • Saint Onge
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
  • Spearfish
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Whitewood
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
  • Vale
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
  • Crook City
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
    • Crook City is located in Lawrence County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crook City
  • Empire
    (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
    • Empire is located in Butte County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Empire
  • Carbonate ‑ Historic
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Carbonate is located in Lawrence County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Carbonate
  • Deadwood
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
  • Sturgis
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
  • Beulah
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Continue List   (9 more) ...
    • Central City
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
      • Central City is located in Lawrence County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Central City
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 155 people
    • Terraville
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
      • Terraville is located in Lawrence County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Terraville
    • Pluma
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
      • Pluma is located in Lawrence County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pluma

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

Newspapers Published in Fruitdale ...

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 75 newspapers that have been published in the area around Fruitdale.

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

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 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 Fruitdale:

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