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A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
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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 Nisland (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 Nisland. 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 southwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors and hospitals were in the next county to the west. 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 west 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.

Nisland 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 Nisland. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Nisland:

  • Butte County     (The home county of Nisland)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Nisland, with the one closest to Nisland listed first.
    • Newell
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Fruitdale
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Vale
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Belle Fourche
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
    • Castle Rock
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
      • Castle Rock is located in Butte County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Castle Rock
  • Lawrence County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Nisland, with the one closest to Nisland listed first.
    • Saint Onge
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Whitewood
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
    • Centennial City ‑ Historic
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
      • Centennial City is located in Lawrence County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Centennial City
    • Crook City
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
      • Crook City is located in Lawrence County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crook City
    • Spearfish
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
    • North Spearfish
      (20 miles [32.2 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
    • Deadwood
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Galena
      (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
      • Galena is located in Lawrence County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Galena
    • Central City
      (23 miles [37 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
      (23 miles [37 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
    • Carbonate ‑ Historic
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
      • Carbonate is located in Lawrence County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Carbonate
    • Lead
      (24 miles [38.6 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>
    • Maurice
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
      • Maurice is located in Lawrence County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Maurice
  • Meade County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Nisland, with the one closest to Nisland listed first.
    • Sturgis
      (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
    • Tilford
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
      • Tilford is located in Meade County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tilford
  • Crook County (WY)

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

Cemeteries Near Nisland ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Nisland.

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

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

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

  • Danish Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
  • Beals Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • 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<2> to the west of Vale.
    • The Beals Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Old Vale Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #1305736 <3>
  • Hope Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
  • Snoma Finnish Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
  • Wilson Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
  • Vale Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
  • Little Dane Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
  • St. Onge Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
  • Minnesota Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
  • Anderson Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
  • Riverside Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
  • Pine Slope Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
  • Continue List   (19 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 Nisland in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Nisland.

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

  • Snoma ‑ Historic
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Snoma is located in Butte County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Snoma
  • Vale
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
  • Saint Onge
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
  • Empire
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
    • Empire is located in Butte County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Empire
  • Belle Fourche
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
  • Whitewood
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
  • Crook City
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
    • Crook City is located in Lawrence County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crook City
  • Sturgis
    (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
  • Spearfish
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
  • Deadwood
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Central City
    (23 miles [37 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
    (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
    • Terraville is located in Lawrence County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Terraville
  • Continue List   (9 more) ...
    • Pluma
      (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
      • Pluma is located in Lawrence County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pluma
    • Galena
      (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
      • Galena is located in Lawrence County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Galena
    • Carbonate ‑ Historic
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
      • Carbonate is located in Lawrence County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Carbonate

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Nisland ...

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 61 newspapers that have been published in the area around Nisland.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Nisland. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Nisland and those printed in the larger area surrounding Nisland.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 28 miles [45.1 km]<2> of Nisland.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we start with 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 Nisland:

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>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Nisland) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<3>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.
<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 Nisland, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.