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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 Lead (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 Lead. 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.

Lead is located in Lawrence 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 Lawrence County: Butte, Meade, Pennington, Crook (WY) & Weston (WY).

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

  • Lawrence County     (The home county of Lead)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Lead, with the one closest to Lead listed first.
    • Central City
      (Less than 2 miles to the north)
    • Flatiron ‑ Historic
      (Less than 2 miles to the south)
      • Flatiron is located in Lawrence County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Flatiron
      • Estimated population in 2014: 15 people
    • Lancaster City ‑ Historic
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
      • Lancaster City is located in Lawrence County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lancaster City
      • Estimated population in 2014: 419 people
    • Deadwood
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Englewood
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
      • Englewood is located in Lawrence County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Englewood
      • Estimated population in 2014: 25 people
    • Trojan
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
    • Woodville
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • Ragged Top ‑ Historic
      (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
      • Ragged Top is located in Lawrence County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ragged Top
      • Estimated population in 2014: 73 people
    • Galena
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Carbonate ‑ Historic
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Preston
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Maurice
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Dumont
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
  • Butte County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Lead, with the one closest to Lead listed first.
    • Belle Fourche
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
    • Fruitdale
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
    • Nisland
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Vale
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Newell
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Meade County
  • Pennington County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Lead, with the one closest to Lead listed first.
    • Rochford
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
    • Myersville
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
      • Myersville is located in Pennington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Myersville
      • Estimated population in 2014: 10 people
    • Fairview ‑ Historic
      (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
      • Fairview is located in Pennington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fairview
      • Estimated population in 2014: 65 people
    • Mystic
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
    • Canyon City ‑ Historic
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
      • Canyon City is located in Pennington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Canyon City
    • Silver City
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Silver City is located in Pennington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Silver City
      • Estimated population in 2014: 60 people
    • Pactola ‑ Historic
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
    • Redfern
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
      • Redfern is located in Pennington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Redfern
    • Johnson Siding
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
    • South Canyon Country Estates
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
      • South Canyon Country Estates is located in Pennington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Canyon Country Estates
      • Population from the 2010 Census: 364 people
    • Ridgeland Heights
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Ridgeland Heights is located in Pennington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ridgeland Heights
      • Estimated population in 2014: 11 people
    • Sheridan ‑ Historic
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Sheridan is located in Pennington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sheridan
      • Estimated population in 2014: 447 people
    • Hill City
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
  • Crook County (WY)
  • Weston County (WY)

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

Cemeteries Near Lead ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Lead.

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

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

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

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.<3>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Lead had a population of 2,581 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Lead had a population of 2,947 people.

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

  • Terraville
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
    • Terraville is located in Lawrence County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Terraville
  • Pluma
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
    • Pluma is located in Lawrence County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pluma
  • Central City
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
  • Deadwood
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
  • Englewood
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • Englewood is located in Lawrence County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Englewood
    • Estimated population in 2014: 25 people
  • Woodville
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
  • Brownsville ‑ Historic
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Brownsville is located in Lawrence County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brownsville
  • Galena
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
  • Carbonate ‑ Historic
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Crook City
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Whitewood
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Spearfish
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
  • Continue List   (14 more) ...
    • Nahant
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
    • Gregory ‑ Historic
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
      • Gregory is located in Lawrence County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gregory
      • Estimated population in 2014: 1,264 people
    • Sturgis
      (13 miles [20.9 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 Lead. See our List of 1890's Communities around Lead.

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Lead ...

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 121 newspapers that have been published in the area around Lead.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Lead. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Lead and those printed in the larger area surrounding Lead.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<4> of Lead.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first visit the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These professional and volunteer 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 Lead:

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>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 Lead, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<4>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- Lead) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.