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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 Newell (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 Newell. 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 hospitals and 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.

Newell is located in Butte 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 Butte County: Carter (MT), Harding, Lawrence, Meade, Perkins & Crook (WY).

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

  • Butte County     (The home county of Newell)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Newell, with the one closest to Newell listed first.
    • Vale
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
    • Nisland
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Fruitdale
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
    • Castle Rock
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
      • Castle Rock is located in Butte County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Castle Rock
    • Belle Fourche
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
    • Hoover
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
      • Hoover is located in Butte County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hoover
  • Lawrence County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Newell, with the one closest to Newell listed first.
    • Saint Onge
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
    • Whitewood
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Crook City
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Crook City is located in Lawrence County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crook City
    • Centennial City ‑ Historic
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
      • Centennial City is located in Lawrence County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Centennial City
    • Spearfish
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Deadwood
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
    • North Spearfish
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
      • North Spearfish is located in Lawrence County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Spearfish
      • Population from the 2010 Census: 2,221 people
    • Galena
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
      • Galena is located in Lawrence County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Galena
    • Central City
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Central City is located in Lawrence County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Central City
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 155 people
    • Lancaster City ‑ Historic
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Lancaster City is located in Lawrence County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lancaster City
      • Estimated population in 2014: 419 people
    • Lead
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Lead is located in Lawrence County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lead
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,947 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Lead <1>
  • Meade County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Newell, with the one closest to Newell listed first.
    • Sturgis
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
    • Tilford
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
      • Tilford is located in Meade County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tilford
    • Fairpoint
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
      • Fairpoint is located in Meade County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fairpoint

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

Cemeteries Near Newell ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Newell.

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 Newell - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • Hope Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
  • Wilson Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
  • Beals Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Beals Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Beals Cemetery is located less than 2 miles<3> to the west of Vale.
    • The Beals Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Old Vale Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #1305736 <2>
  • Vale Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
  • Danish Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
  • Snoma Finnish Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Little Dane Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
  • Minnesota Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
  • St. Onge Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
  • Anderson Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Crook City Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Bear Butte Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
  • Continue List   (14 more) ...

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

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

  • Vale
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
  • Empire
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Empire is located in Butte County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Empire
  • Snoma ‑ Historic
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
    • Snoma is located in Butte County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Snoma
  • Saint Onge
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
  • Whitewood
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Crook City
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Crook City is located in Lawrence County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crook City
  • Sturgis
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
  • Belle Fourche
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
  • Spearfish
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Continue List   (6 more) ...
    • Deadwood
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Galena
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
      • Galena is located in Lawrence County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Galena
    • Tilford
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
      • Tilford is located in Meade County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tilford
    • Central City
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Central City is located in Lawrence County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Central City
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 155 people
    • Terraville
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Terraville is located in Lawrence County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Terraville
    • Pluma
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Pluma is located in Lawrence County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pluma

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Newell ...

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 56 newspapers that have been published in the area around Newell.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

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

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we like to start 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 Newell:

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' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Newell) 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 Newell, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.