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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 Spring Valley Colony (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 Spring Valley Colony. 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 Spring Valley Colony ...

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 Spring Valley Colony: Spring Vly. Colony (or less commonly used: Spring Vally. Colony or Spring Vlly. Colony)

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 northeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals 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.

Spring Valley Colony is located in Jerauld 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 Jerauld County: Aurora, Beadle, Brule, Buffalo, Davison, Hand & Sanborn.

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

  • Jerauld County     (The home county of Spring Valley Colony)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Spring Valley Colony, with the one closest to Spring Valley Colony listed first.
    • Crow Lake
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Crow Lake is located in Jerauld County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crow Lake
    • Wessington Springs
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
    • Lane
      (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
    • Alpena
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
  • Aurora County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Spring Valley Colony, with the one closest to Spring Valley Colony listed first.
    • White Lake
      (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
    • Storla
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Storla is located in Aurora County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Storla
      • Population from the 2010 Census: 6 people
    • Plankinton
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Beadle County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Spring Valley Colony, with the one closest to Spring Valley Colony listed first.
    • Virgil
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Wessington
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
  • Brule County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Spring Valley Colony, with the one closest to Spring Valley Colony listed first.
    • Lyonville
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
      • Lyonville is located in Brule County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lyonville
      • Estimated population in 2014: 49 people
    • Kimball
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
    • Pukwana
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
    • Chamberlain
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Buffalo County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Spring Valley Colony, with the one closest to Spring Valley Colony listed first.
    • Gann Valley
      (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Shelby
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Shelby is located in Buffalo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shelby
      • Estimated population in 2014: 96 people
    • Crow Creek
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
      • Crow Creek is located in Buffalo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crow Creek
    • Fort Thompson
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
  • Hand County
    • Ames
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
      • Ames is located in Hand County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ames
  • Lyman County
    • Oacoma
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Sanborn County
    • Woonsocket
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)

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

Cemeteries Near Spring Valley Colony ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Spring Valley Colony.

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 Spring Valley Colony - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • Spring Hill Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
  • Pleasant Hill Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
  • Salem Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
  • Hope Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
  • New Zion Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
  • Ebenezer Baptist Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
  • Vega Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
  • St. Placidus Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for St. Placidus Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the St. Placidus Cemetery is located 20 miles [32.2 km]<3> to the northeast of Fort Thompson.
    • The St. Placidus Cemetery has also been known as:
    • St. Placidus Catholic Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2168066 <2>
  • Chery Twp. Pioneer Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Union Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
  • Prospect Hill Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
  • Crow Creek Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
  • Continue List   (35 more) ...
    • Viola Valley Cemetery
      (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
    • Earlville Cemetery
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
    • Rosehill Cemetery
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)

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

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

  • Gann Valley
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
  • Crow Lake
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Crow Lake is located in Jerauld County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crow Lake
  • Lyonville
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
    • Lyonville is located in Brule County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lyonville
    • Estimated population in 2014: 49 people
  • Wessington Springs
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
  • Crow Creek
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
    • Crow Creek is located in Buffalo County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crow Creek
  • Ames
    (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
    • Ames is located in Hand County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ames
  • Kimball
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
  • Sweetland ‑ Historic
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
    • Sweetland is located in Hand County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sweetland
  • Pukwana
    (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
  • White Lake
    (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
  • Chamberlain
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Alpena
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
  • Virgil
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Oacoma
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)

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

Newspapers Published in Spring Valley Colony ...

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 53 newspapers that have been published in the area around Spring Valley Colony.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Spring Valley Colony, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Spring Valley Colony.

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 Spring Valley Colony:

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