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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 Gettysburg (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 Gettysburg. 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 doctors and hospitals 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.

Gettysburg is located in Potter County and is the County Seat.

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 Potter County: Dewey, Edmunds, Faulk, Hyde, Sully & Walworth.

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

  • Potter County     (The home county of Gettysburg)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Gettysburg, with the one closest to Gettysburg listed first.
    • Lebanon
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Lebanon have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lebanon
      • Lebanon is located in Potter County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 43 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Lebanon <2>
    • Forest City
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Forest City have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Forest City
      • Forest City is located in Potter County
    • Hoven
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
    • Tolstoy
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
  • Dewey County
    • Marksville
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Marksville have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Marksville
      • Marksville is located in Dewey County
      • Estimated population in 2014: 771 people
  • Faulk County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Gettysburg, with the one closest to Gettysburg listed first.
    • Seneca
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
    • Onaka
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Sully County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Gettysburg, with the one closest to Gettysburg listed first.
    • Agar
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Agar have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Agar
      • Agar is located in Sully County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 80 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Agar <2>
    • Onida
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
  • Walworth County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Gettysburg, with the one closest to Gettysburg listed first.
    • Lowry
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Lowry have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lowry
      • Lowry is located in Walworth County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 6 people
    • Akaska
      (23 miles [37 km] to the north)

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Gettysburg ...

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 11 newspapers that have been published in the area around Gettysburg.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Gettysburg. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Gettysburg and those printed in the larger area surrounding Gettysburg.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 21 miles [33.8 km]<3> of Gettysburg.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we start with the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These websites either 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 Gettysburg:

Cemeteries Near Gettysburg ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Gettysburg.

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

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

  • Sacred Heart Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Sacred Heart Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Sacred Heart Cemetery
  • Gettysburg Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Gettysburg Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Gettysburg Cemetery
  • Lebanon Protestant Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Lebanon Protestant Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Lebanon Protestant Cemetery
  • St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery
  • Appomattox Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Appomattox Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Appomattox Cemetery
  • Pembroke Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Pembroke Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Pembroke Cemetery
  • Schreiber Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Schreiber Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Schreiber Cemetery
  • Agar Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
  • Copp Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Copp Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Copp Cemetery
  • Petro Family Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Petro Family Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Petro Family Cemetery
  • Hanson Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Hanson Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Hanson Cemetery
  • Prairie Grove Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Prairie Grove Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Prairie Grove Cemetery
  • Continue List   (24 more) ...
    • Forest City Cemetery
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Forest City Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Forest City Cemetery
    • Spring Cemetery
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Spring Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Spring Cemetery
    • Advent Cemetery
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Advent Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Advent Cemetery
      • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #96748 <4>

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.<5>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Gettysburg had a population of 377 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Gettysburg had a population of 1,085 people.

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

  • Lebanon
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Lebanon have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lebanon
    • Lebanon is located in Potter County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 43 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Lebanon <2>
  • Forest City
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Forest City have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Forest City
    • Forest City is located in Potter County
  • Hoven
    (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
  • Onida
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
  • Seneca
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)

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

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

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

Footnotes ...

<1>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.
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<3>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Gettysburg) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Gettysburg. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 45.0066, Longitude: -99.9540       In this case, the coordinates for Gettysburg have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<4>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.
<5>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 Gettysburg, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024