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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 Martin (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 Martin. 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 southeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors and hospitals 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.

Martin is located in Bennett 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 Bennett County: Cherry (NE), Jackson, Oglala Lakota & Todd.

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

  • Bennett County     (The home county of Martin)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Martin, with the one closest to Martin listed first.
    • Plenty Bears
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Plenty Bears have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Plenty Bears
      • Plenty Bears is located in Bennett County
      • Estimated population in 2014: 109 people
    • Swett ‑ Historic
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Swett
      • Swett is located in Bennett County
      • Estimated population in 2014: 283 people
    • Allen
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Tuthill
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
    • Vetal
      (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Vetal
      • Vetal is located in Bennett County
  • Jackson County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Martin, with the one closest to Martin listed first.
    • Long Valley
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Long Valley have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Long Valley
      • Long Valley is located in Jackson County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Long Valley <2>
    • Wanblee
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Wanblee have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wanblee
      • Wanblee is located in Jackson County
      • Population from the 2010 Census: 725 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Wanblee <2>
    • Potato Creek
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Potato Creek
      • Potato Creek is located in Jackson County
  • Oglala Lakota County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Martin, with the one closest to Martin listed first.
    • Batesland
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Batesland have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Batesland
      • Batesland is located in Oglala Lakota County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 113 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Batesland <2>
    • Kyle
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Porcupine
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
  • Cherry County (NE)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Martin, with the one closest to Martin listed first.
    • Merriman
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
    • Cody
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Cody have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cody
      • Cody is located in Cherry County (NE)
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 157 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Cody <2>

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Martin ...

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 13 newspapers that have been published in the area around Martin.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Martin. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Martin and those printed in the larger area surrounding Martin.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<3> of Martin.

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 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 Martin:

Cemeteries Near Martin ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Martin.

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

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

  • St. Johns Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
  • St. Mary's Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
  • Our Lady of the Lake Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Red Bear Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Red Bear Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Red Bear Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #97436 <4>
  • Peyote Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
  • Salaway Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
  • St. Joseph Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Joseph Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Joseph Cemetery
  • Pleasant Hill Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
  • Body of Christ Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Merriman Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
  • St. Elizabeth Catholic Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
  • Knight Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Knight Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Knight Cemetery
  • Continue List   (14 more) ...
    • Feather on Head Cemetery
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Feather on Head Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Feather on Head Cemetery
    • Hawking Cemetery
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Hawking Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Hawking Cemetery
    • Conley Flat Cemetery
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)

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

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

  • Merriman
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
  • Eli
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Eli have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eli
    • Eli is located in Cherry County (NE)
  • Irwin
    (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Irwin have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Irwin
    • Irwin is located in Cherry County (NE)
  • Cody
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Cody have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cody
    • Cody is located in Cherry County (NE)
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 157 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Cody <2>

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

Unfortunately, we don't know of a website for Martin. 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' (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- Martin) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Martin. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 43.1722, Longitude: -101.7318    
<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 Martin, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024