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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 Lees Corner (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 Lees Corner. 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 Lees Corner ...

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 occur.

  • A typical abbreviation for Lees Corner: Lees Cor. (or less commonly used: Lees Crn.)
  • While the name of this community is Lees Corner, be aware that it's the common practice of mapmakers to remove the apostrophe from possessive names<1>. So Lees Corner may originally have been Lee's Corner.

    Sometimes the trailing 's' might be dropped altogether, in which case Lees Corner might be written as Lee Corner.

You might be interested in other communities that are also named Lees Corner. More information can be found on our Tidbits & Trivia Page for Lees Corner.

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 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.

Lees Corner is located in Buffalo 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 Buffalo County: Brule, Hand, Hyde, Jerauld & Lyman.

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

  • Buffalo County     (The home county of Lees Corner)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Lees Corner, with the one closest to Lees Corner listed first.
    • Fort Thompson
      (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Crow Creek
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Crow Creek is located in Buffalo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crow Creek
    • Shelby
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Shelby is located in Buffalo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shelby
      • Estimated population in 2014: 96 people
    • Gann Valley
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
  • Brule County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Lees Corner, with the one closest to Lees Corner listed first.
    • Chamberlain
      (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
    • Pukwana
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
    • Lyonville
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
      • Lyonville is located in Brule County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lyonville
      • Estimated population in 2014: 49 people
    • Kimball
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Hand County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Lees Corner, with the one closest to Lees Corner listed first.
    • Ames
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
      • Ames is located in Hand County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ames
    • Ree Heights
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
  • Hyde County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Lees Corner, with the one closest to Lees Corner listed first.
    • Stephan
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Bramhall ‑ Historic
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
      • Bramhall is located in Hyde County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bramhall
    • Highmore
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
  • Jerauld County
    • Crow Lake
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
      • Crow Lake is located in Jerauld County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crow Lake
  • Lyman County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Lees Corner, with the one closest to Lees Corner listed first.
    • Lower Brule
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
    • East Lyman
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
      • East Lyman is located in Lyman County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for East Lyman
      • Estimated population in 2019: 145 people
    • Oacoma
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
    • Reliance
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Lyman
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
      • Lyman is located in Lyman County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lyman
      • Estimated population in 2014: 43 people
    • Kennebec
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)

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

Cemeteries Near Lees Corner ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Lees Corner.

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 Lees Corner - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • Catholic Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Catholic Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Catholic Cemetery is located less than 2 miles<3> to the west of Fort Thompson.
    • The Catholic Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Lake View Cemetery
    • St. Joseph's Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #97570 <4>
  • St. Joseph Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
  • St. John the Baptist Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for St. John the Baptist Cemetery
    • The St. John the Baptist Cemetery has also been known as:
    • St. John the Baptist Episcopal Cemetery
    • St. John's Cemetery
    • St. John's Episcopal Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2168051 <4>
  • Crow Creek Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Holy Comforter Episcopal Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
  • Immaculate Conception Mission Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Immaculate Conception Mission Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Immaculate Conception Mission Cemetery is located 18 miles [29 km]<3> to the south of Highmore.
    • The Immaculate Conception Mission Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Immaculate Conception Cemetery
    • Stephen Mission Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #97149 <4>
  • Cedar Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
  • St. Placidus Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for St. Placidus Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the St. Placidus Cemetery is located 20 miles [32.2 km]<3> to the northeast of Fort Thompson.
    • The St. Placidus Cemetery has also been known as:
    • St. Placidus Catholic Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2168066 <4>
  • Vega Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Spring Hill Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
  • Reliance Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
  • St. Marys Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
  • Continue List   (22 more) ...
    • Oacoma Cemetery
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
    • Norwegian Cemetery
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Norwegian Cemetery
      • To give a relative sense of its location, the Norwegian Cemetery is located 6 miles [9.7 km]<3> to the east of Chamberlain.
      • The Norwegian Cemetery has also been known as:
      • Norwegian Free Lutheran Cemetery
      • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #97317 <4>
    • Riverview Cemetery
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)

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>

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

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

  • Crow Creek
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Crow Creek is located in Buffalo County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crow Creek
  • Lower Brule
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
  • Stephan
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
  • Gann Valley
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
  • Ames
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Ames is located in Hand County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ames
  • Chamberlain
    (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
  • Oacoma
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
  • Pukwana
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
  • Lyonville
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Lyonville is located in Brule County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lyonville
    • Estimated population in 2014: 49 people
  • Lyman
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Lyman is located in Lyman County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lyman
    • Estimated population in 2014: 43 people
  • Sweetland ‑ Historic
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Sweetland is located in Hand County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sweetland
  • Kimball
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)

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

Newspapers Published in Lees Corner ...

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 34 newspapers that have been published in the area around Lees Corner.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Lees Corner, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Lees Corner.

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 Lees Corner:

Footnotes ...

<1>It's generally believed that possessive apostrophes are removed to prevent confusion on maps where the apostrophe may be confused with a cartographic symbol. While this is generally true, it's not uncommon to find possessive apostrophes in administrative names (such as towns or counties).
<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 '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- Lees Corner) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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 Lees Corner, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.