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 Miller (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 Miller. 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 northeast 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 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 east 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.

Miller is located in Hand 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 Hand County: Beadle, Buffalo, Faulk, Hyde, Jerauld & Spink.

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

• Hand County     (The home county of Miller)
  • The following are listed by their distance from Miller, with the one closest to Miller listed first.
  • Saint Lawrence
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Saint Lawrence have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Saint Lawrence
    • Saint Lawrence is located in Hand County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 181 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Saint Lawrence <2>
  • Ree Heights
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Ree Heights have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ree Heights
    • Ree Heights is located in Hand County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 58 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Ree Heights <2>
  • Florence ‑ Historic
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Florence have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Florence
    • Florence is located in Hand County
    • Estimated population in 2014: 374 people
  • Polo
    (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Polo have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Polo
    • Polo is located in Hand County
    • Estimated population in 2014: 227 people
  • Ames
    (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ames
    • Ames is located in Hand County
• Beadle County
  • The following are listed by their distance from Miller, with the one closest to Miller listed first.
  • Wessington
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Wessington have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wessington
    • Wessington is located in Beadle County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 179 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Wessington <2>
  • Bonilla
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bonilla
    • Bonilla is located in Beadle County
  • Wolsey
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Wolsey have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wolsey
    • Wolsey is located in Beadle County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 400 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Wolsey <2>
  • Hitchcock
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Hitchcock have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hitchcock
    • Hitchcock is located in Beadle County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 97 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Hitchcock <2>
• Faulk County
  • The following are listed by their distance from Miller, with the one closest to Miller listed first.
  • Orient
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Orient
    • Orient is located in Faulk County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 62 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Orient <2>
  • Rockham
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Rockham have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rockham
    • Rockham is located in Faulk County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 33 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Rockham <2>
  • Zell
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Zell have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Zell
    • Zell is located in Faulk County
    • Estimated population in 2014: 65 people
• Hyde County
  • The following are listed by their distance from Miller, with the one closest to Miller listed first.
  • Highmore
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Highmore
    • Highmore is located in Hyde County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 712 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Highmore <2>
  • Stephan
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stephan
    • Stephan is located in Hyde County
    • Estimated population in 2014: 192 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Stephan <2>
  • Holabird
    (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Holabird have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Holabird
    • Holabird is located in Hyde County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Holabird <2>
• Spink County
  • The following are listed by their distance from Miller, with the one closest to Miller listed first.
  • Spottswood
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Spottswood have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spottswood
    • Spottswood is located in Spink County
  • Tulare
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Tulare have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tulare
    • Tulare is located in Spink County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 209 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Tulare <2>

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Miller ...

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 17 newspapers that have been published in the area around Miller.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

• A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Miller. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Miller and those printed in the larger area surrounding Miller.
• An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<3> of Miller.

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 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 Miller:

• Websites specific to South Dakota
  • Jump to Cyndi's List
  • Jump to Family Search
  • Jump to Genealogy Trails
  • Website for the South Dakota State Archives

• Pages specific to Hand County
  • Jump to Cyndi's List
  • Jump to Family Search
  • Jump to Genealogy Trails

• Genealogy information for nearby counties
  • Beadle County
    • Jump to Cyndi's List
    • Jump to Family Search
    • Jump to Genealogy Trails
  • Faulk County
    • Jump to Cyndi's List
    • Jump to Family Search
    • Jump to Genealogy Trails
  • Hyde County
    • Jump to Cyndi's List
    • Jump to Family Search
    • Jump to Genealogy Trails
  • Spink County
    • Jump to Cyndi's List
    • Jump to Family Search
    • Jump to Genealogy Trails

• Cemetery Information and Directories for South Dakota
  • Cemetery Junction: Cemeteries of South Dakota
  • Cyndi's List
  • Cemeteries of South Dakota
  • Cemeteries of Hand County
  • FamilySearch.org: Cemeteries of South Dakota
  • Find-A-Grave: Home Page
  • Interment.net
  • Cemeteries of South Dakota

Cemeteries Near Miller ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Miller.

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

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

• G A R Cemetery
  (Less than 2 miles to the south)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the G A R Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the G A R Cemetery
• St. Anns Cemetery
  (Less than 2 miles to the east)
  • To give a relative sense of its location, the St. Anns Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located outside and to the east of Miller.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Anns Cemetery
  • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #97512 <4>
• St. Lawrence Cemetery
  (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Lawrence Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Lawrence Cemetery
• Morningside Cemetery
  (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Morningside Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Morningside Cemetery
• Beulah Cemetery
  (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Beulah Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Beulah Cemetery
• Alden Cemetery
  (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Alden Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Alden Cemetery
• Sunbeam Cemetery
  (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Sunbeam Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Sunbeam Cemetery
• Wessington Cemetery
  (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
  • To give a relative sense of its location, the Wessington Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located outside of Wessington
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Wessington Cemetery
  • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #97801 <4>
• Burdette Cemetery
  (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Burdette Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Burdette Cemetery
• McCord Cemetery
  (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the McCord Cemetery
  • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2435760 <4>
• Howell Cemetery
  (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Howell Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Howell Cemetery
• Rosehill Cemetery
  (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Rosehill Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Rosehill Cemetery
• Continue List   (25 more) ...
  • Calvary Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Calvary Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Calvary Cemetery
  • Buffalo Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Buffalo Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Buffalo Cemetery
  • Cedar Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Cedar Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Cedar 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.<5>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Miller had a population of 536 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Miller had a population of 1,306 people.

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

• Saint Lawrence
  (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Saint Lawrence have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Saint Lawrence
  • Saint Lawrence is located in Hand County
  • Population from the 2020 Census: 181 people
  • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Saint Lawrence <2>
• Ree Heights
  (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Ree Heights have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ree Heights
  • Ree Heights is located in Hand County
  • Population from the 2020 Census: 58 people
  • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Ree Heights <2>
• Florence ‑ Historic
  (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Florence have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Florence
  • Florence is located in Hand County
  • Estimated population in 2014: 374 people
• Sweetland ‑ Historic
  (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Sweetland have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sweetland
  • Sweetland is located in Hand County
• Wessington
  (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Wessington have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wessington
  • Wessington is located in Beadle County
  • Population from the 2020 Census: 179 people
  • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Wessington <2>
• Burdette
  (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Burdette have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Burdette
  • Burdette is located in Hand County
• Bramhall ‑ Historic
  (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Bramhall have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bramhall
  • Bramhall is located in Hyde County
• Ames
  (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ames
  • Ames is located in Hand County
• Highmore
  (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Highmore
  • Highmore is located in Hyde County
  • Population from the 2020 Census: 712 people
  • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Highmore <2>
• Bonilla
  (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bonilla
  • Bonilla is located in Beadle County
• Spottswood
  (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Spottswood have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spottswood
  • Spottswood is located in Spink County
• Orient
  (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Orient
  • Orient is located in Faulk County
  • Population from the 2020 Census: 62 people
  • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Orient <2>
• Continue List   (7 more) ...
  • Wolsey
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Wolsey have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wolsey
    • Wolsey is located in Beadle County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 400 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Wolsey <2>
  • Tulare
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Tulare have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tulare
    • Tulare is located in Spink County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 209 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Tulare <2>
  • Rockham
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Rockham have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rockham
    • Rockham is located in Faulk County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 33 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Rockham <2>

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

Off-the-Road Links ...

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

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