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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 Lucerne (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 Lucerne. 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 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.

Lucerne is located in Haakon County.

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 Haakon County: Dewey, Jackson, Jones, Meade, Pennington, Stanley & Ziebach.

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

  • Haakon County     (The home county of Lucerne)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Lucerne, with the one closest to Lucerne listed first.
    • Philip
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Milesville
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Hartley
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Hartley have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hartley
      • Hartley is located in Haakon County
      • Estimated population in 2014: 129 people
    • Moenville
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Moenville have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Moenville
      • Moenville is located in Haakon County
      • Estimated population in 2014: 18 people
    • Midland
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
  • Jackson County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Lucerne, with the one closest to Lucerne listed first.
    • Cottonwood
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Cottonwood have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cottonwood
      • Cottonwood is located in Jackson County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 10 people
    • Kadoka
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
    • Belvidere
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Belvidere have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Belvidere
      • Belvidere is located in Jackson County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 56 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Belvidere <1>
  • Jones County
    • Capa ‑ Historic
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Capa
      • Capa is located in Jones County
  • Stanley County
    • Hayes
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Hayes have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hayes
      • Hayes is located in Stanley County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Hayes <1>
  • Ziebach County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Lucerne, with the one closest to Lucerne listed first.
    • Cherry Creek
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
    • Bridger
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bridger
      • Bridger is located in Ziebach County

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

Newspapers Published in Lucerne ...

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 14 newspapers that have been published in the area around Lucerne.

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

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 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 Lucerne:

Cemeteries Near Lucerne ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Lucerne.

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

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

  • Mattison Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Mattison Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Mattison Cemetery
  • Topbar Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Topbar Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Topbar Cemetery
  • Nowlin Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Nowlin Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Nowlin Cemetery
  • Milesville Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Milesville Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Milesville Cemetery
  • Hilland Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Hilland Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Hilland Cemetery
  • Wellsburg Union Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Wellsburg Union Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Wellsburg Union Cemetery
  • Midland Cemetery
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Midland Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Midland Cemetery
  • Dowling Cemetery
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Dowling Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Dowling Cemetery
  • Cottonwood Cemetery
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Cottonwood Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Cottonwood Cemetery
  • Flat Top Cemetery
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Flat Top Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Flat Top Cemetery
  • Robbs Flat Cemetery
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Robbs Flat Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Robbs Flat Cemetery
  • Rose Cemetery
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Rose Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Rose Cemetery
  • Continue List   (4 more) ...
    • Belvedere Cemetery
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Belvedere Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Belvedere Cemetery
    • Riverview Cemetery
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Riverview Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Riverview Cemetery
    • St. Paul Cemetery
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Paul Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Paul Cemetery

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

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

  • Philip
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
  • Nowlin
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Nowlin have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nowlin
    • Nowlin is located in Haakon County
  • Grindstone
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Grindstone have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grindstone
    • Grindstone is located in Haakon County

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

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

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

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 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.
<3>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Lucerne) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Lucerne. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 44.2392, Longitude: -101.5263       In this case, the coordinates for Lucerne have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<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 Lucerne, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024