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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 Irene (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 Irene. 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 northeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals were in the next county to the east. 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 east 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.

Irene is primarily located in Turner County. A portion of Irene extends into Clay County and Yankton 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 Turner County: Clay, Hutchinson, Lincoln, McCook, Minnehaha & Yankton.

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

  • Turner County     (The home county of Irene)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Irene, with the one closest to Irene listed first.
    • Viborg
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Centerville
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
    • Hooker
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Spring Valley
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
      • Spring Valley is located in Turner County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spring Valley
    • Hurley
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
    • Davis
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Parker
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
    • Chancellor
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Marion
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
    • Monroe
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
    • Dolton
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
      • Dolton is located in Turner County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dolton
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 39 people
  • Bon Homme County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Irene, with the one closest to Irene listed first.
    • Tabor
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
    • Scotland
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
  • Clay County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Irene, with the one closest to Irene listed first.
    • Wakonda
      (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Riverside ‑ Historic
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
    • Lodi
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Lodi is located in Clay County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lodi
      • Estimated population in 2014: 82 people
    • Westreville
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Westreville is located in Clay County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Westreville
      • Population from the 2010 Census: 208 people
    • Komstad ‑ Historic
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
    • Bloomingdale
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Hub City
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Hub City is located in Clay County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hub City
    • Glenwood ‑ Historic
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
      • Glenwood is located in Clay County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Glenwood
      • Estimated population in 2014: 103 people
    • Meckling
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
    • Alsen
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Greenfield
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Vermillion
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
    • Burbank
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Hutchinson County
  • Lincoln County
  • Union County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Irene, with the one closest to Irene listed first.
    • Beresford
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
    • Emmet
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
      • Emmet is located in Union County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Emmet
      • Estimated population in 2014: 231 people
    • Nora
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
      • Nora is located in Union County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nora
      • Estimated population in 2014: 240 people
    • Spink
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Alcester
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
    • Junction City
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Big Springs
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
  • Yankton County
  • Cedar County (NE)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Irene, with the one closest to Irene listed first.
    • Saint Helena
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
    • Aten
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Wynot
      (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
    • Bow Valley
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
    • Obert
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
    • Fordyce
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
    • Constance
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Dixon County (NE)
    • Maskell
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
      • Maskell is located in Dixon County (NE)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Maskell
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 68 people
  • Knox County (NE)
    • Crofton
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)

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

Cemeteries Near Irene ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Irene.

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

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

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

  • Hillcrest Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
  • Pioneer Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
  • Hansen Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
  • Salem Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
  • Columkill Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
  • Holland Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
  • Bethania Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
  • Meldal Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Union Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
  • Ogstad Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Walshtown Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
  • Volin Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
  • Continue List   (139 more) ...
    • Evergreen Cemetery
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
    • St. Patricks Cemetery
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Riverside Cemetery
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)

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.<2>

While we didn't find Irene in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Irene.

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

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

Newspapers Published in Irene ...

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 88 newspapers that have been published in the area around Irene.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Irene, there are papers which were published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Irene.

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 Irene:

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