RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of South Dakota >> Day County >> Waubay >> Genealogy HelperIndex...

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 Waubay (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 Waubay. 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 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 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.

Waubay is located in Day 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 Day County: Brown, Clark, Codington, Grant, Marshall, Roberts & Spink.

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

  • Day County     (The home county of Waubay)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Waubay, with the one closest to Waubay listed first.
    • Grenville
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Webster
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
    • Roslyn
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Holmquist
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
    • Butler
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
    • Lily
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Bristol
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
    • Pierpont
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Andover
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
  • Clark County
  • Codington County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Waubay, with the one closest to Waubay listed first.
    • Florence
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
    • Wallace
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
    • South Shore
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Rauville
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
      • Rauville is located in Codington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rauville
      • Estimated population in 2014: 292 people
    • Waverly
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Grant County
  • Marshall County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Waubay, with the one closest to Waubay listed first.
    • Eden
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
    • Lake City
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
  • Roberts County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Waubay, with the one closest to Waubay listed first.
    • Ortley
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Summit
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
    • Spring Grove
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Spring Grove is located in Roberts County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spring Grove
      • Estimated population in 2014: 125 people
    • Goodwill
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
      • Goodwill is located in Roberts County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Goodwill
      • Estimated population in 2014: 876 people
    • Wilmot
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
    • Peever Flats
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Peever
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Long Hollow Housing
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
      • Long Hollow Housing is located in Roberts County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Long Hollow Housing
      • Population from the 2010 Census: 192 people
    • Sisseton
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Corona
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
    • South Dakota Park
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
      • South Dakota Park is located in Roberts County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Dakota Park
      • Estimated population in 2014: 15 people
    • Hartford Beach
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
      • Hartford Beach is located in Roberts County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hartford Beach
      • Estimated population in 2014: 126 people
  • Traverse County (MN)
    • Browns Valley
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Browns Valley is located in Traverse County (MN)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Browns Valley
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 522 people

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

Cemeteries Near Waubay ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Waubay.

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

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

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

  • Old Zion Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
  • Lakewood Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
  • Ortley Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
  • Salem Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
  • Blue Dog Grave
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
  • St. James Indian Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
  • Old St. Otto's Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
  • Egeland Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
  • St. Joseph's Catholic Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
  • Webster Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
  • St. Otto's Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
  • Wheatland Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Continue List   (85 more) ...
    • Summit Cemetery
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
    • Saron Free Lutheran Cemetery
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
    • Summit Cemetery
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)

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.<2>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Waubay had a population of 75 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Waubay had a population of 550 people.

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

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Waubay ...

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 45 newspapers that have been published in the area around Waubay.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Waubay. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Waubay and those printed in the larger area surrounding Waubay.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<3> of Waubay.

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 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 Waubay:

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>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 Waubay, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<3>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or 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- Waubay) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.