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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 Mawl Springs (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 Mawl Springs. 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 Mawl Springs ...

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.

For example, a typical abbreviation for Mawl Springs: Mawl Spgs. (or less commonly used: Mawl Spngs. or Mawl Sprngs.)

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.

Mawl Springs is located in Pennington 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 Pennington County: Custer, Haakon, Jackson, Lawrence, Meade, Oglala Lakota & Weston (WY).

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

  • Pennington County     (The home county of Mawl Springs)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Mawl Springs, with the one closest to Mawl Springs listed first.
    • New Underwood
      (Less than 2 miles to the west)
    • Farmingdale
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
      • Farmingdale is located in Pennington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Farmingdale
      • Estimated population in 2014: 10 people
    • Wicksville
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
      • Wicksville is located in Pennington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wicksville
    • Caputa
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Owanka
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Creston ‑ Historic
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
      • Creston is located in Pennington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Creston
    • Box Elder
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
    • Green Valley
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
      • Green Valley is located in Pennington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Green Valley
      • Estimated population in 2014: 51 people
    • Ashland Heights
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
      • Ashland Heights is located in Pennington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ashland Heights
    • Murphy
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
      • Murphy is located in Pennington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Murphy
      • Estimated population in 2014: 482 people
    • Rapid Valley
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
      • Rapid Valley is located in Pennington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rapid Valley
      • Population from the 2010 Census: 8,260 people
    • Wasta
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
      • Wasta is located in Pennington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wasta
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 82 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Wasta <1>
    • Sioux Village
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
      • Sioux Village is located in Pennington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sioux Village
      • Estimated population in 2014: 262 people
  • Custer County
    • Hermosa
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Meade County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Mawl Springs, with the one closest to Mawl Springs listed first.
    • Viewfield
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
      • Viewfield is located in Meade County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Viewfield
      • Estimated population in 2014: 44 people
    • Bend
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Bend is located in Meade County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bend
    • Elm Springs
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Blackhawk
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
    • Summerset
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
    • Piedmont
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)

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

Cemeteries Near Mawl Springs ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Mawl Springs.

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 Mawl Springs - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • Viewfield Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
  • Larsen Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Owanka Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Elk Vale Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
  • Scenic Cemetery
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
  • Mountain View Cemetery
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
  • Mt. Calvary Cemetery
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
  • Pine Lawn Memorial Park
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
  • Blackhawk Cemetery
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
  • Haydraw Cemetery
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
  • Rockerville Cemetery
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)

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

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

  • Viewfield
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
    • Viewfield is located in Meade County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Viewfield
    • Estimated population in 2014: 44 people
  • Farmingdale
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Farmingdale is located in Pennington County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Farmingdale
    • Estimated population in 2014: 10 people
  • Creston ‑ Historic
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Creston is located in Pennington County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Creston
  • Bend
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Bend is located in Meade County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bend
  • Folsom
    (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
    • Folsom is located in Custer County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Folsom
  • Rapid City
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
  • Hermosa
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Blackhawk
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
  • Rockerville
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)

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

Newspapers Published in Mawl Springs ...

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 39 newspapers that have been published in the area around Mawl Springs.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Mawl Springs, there are papers which were published within 28 miles [45.1 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Mawl Springs.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first turn to the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These 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 Mawl Springs:

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