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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 Westport (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 Westport. 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.

Westport is located in Brown County.

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 Brown County: Dickey (ND), Sargent (ND), Day, Edmunds, Faulk, Marshall, McPherson & Spink.

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

  • Brown County     (The home county of Westport)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Westport, with the one closest to Westport listed first.
    • Barnard
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Ordway
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Ordway have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ordway
      • Ordway is located in Brown County
      • Estimated population in 2014: 306 people
    • Columbia
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
    • Gederos Estates
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Gederos Estates have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gederos Estates
      • Gederos Estates is located in Brown County
      • Estimated population in 2014: 212 people
    • Pleasant Vally Development
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Pleasant Vally Development have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pleasant Vally Development
      • Pleasant Vally Development is located in Brown County
    • Prairie Wood Village Addition
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Prairie Wood Village Addition have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Prairie Wood Village Addition
      • Prairie Wood Village Addition is located in Brown County
      • Estimated population in 2014: 276 people
    • Frederick
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
    • Aberdeen
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Aberdeen have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Aberdeen
      • Aberdeen is located in Brown County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 28,180 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Aberdeen <1>
    • Melrose Addition
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Melrose Addition have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Melrose Addition
      • Melrose Addition is located in Brown County
      • Estimated population in 2014: 221 people
    • Jobee Acres
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Jobee Acres have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jobee Acres
      • Jobee Acres is located in Brown County
      • Estimated population in 2014: 15 people
    • Bath
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Tacoma Park
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tacoma Park
      • Tacoma Park is located in Brown County
      • Estimated population in 2014: 413 people
    • Bath Corner
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bath Corner
      • Bath Corner is located in Brown County
  • Edmunds County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Westport, with the one closest to Westport listed first.
    • Mina
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mina
      • Mina is located in Edmunds County
      • Mina has also been known as:
      • Cortland
      • Cortlandt
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Mina <1>
    • Craven Corner
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Craven Corner
      • Craven Corner is located in Edmunds County
    • Craven
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Craven
      • Craven is located in Edmunds County
    • Ipswich
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Marshall County
  • McPherson County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Westport, with the one closest to Westport listed first.
    • Wetonka
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Wetonka have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wetonka
      • Wetonka is located in McPherson County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 7 people
    • Long Lake Colony
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Long Lake Colony have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Long Lake Colony
      • Long Lake Colony is located in McPherson County
      • Estimated population in 2014: 332 people
    • Leola
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Leola have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Leola
      • Leola is located in McPherson County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 420 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Leola <1>
    • Spring Creek Colony
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Spring Creek Colony have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spring Creek Colony
      • Spring Creek Colony is located in McPherson County
      • Population from the 2010 Census: 268 people
  • Spink County
    • Duxbury
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Duxbury have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Duxbury
      • Duxbury is located in Spink County
      • Estimated population in 2014: 531 people
  • Dickey County (ND)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Westport, with the one closest to Westport listed first.
    • Ellendale
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Ellendale have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ellendale
      • Ellendale is located in Dickey County (ND)
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,179 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Ellendale <1>
    • Forbes
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Forbes have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Forbes
      • Forbes is located in Dickey County (ND)
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 43 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Forbes <1>
    • Silverleaf
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Silverleaf. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Silverleaf
      • Silverleaf is located in Dickey County (ND)
    • Guelph
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Guelph
      • Guelph is located in Dickey County (ND)
    • Ludden
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Ludden have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ludden
      • Ludden is located in Dickey County (ND)
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 24 people

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

Cemeteries Near Westport ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Westport.

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

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

  • Westport Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Westport Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Westport Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • St. Marys Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
  • Sacred Heart Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Sacred Heart Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Sacred Heart Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Bretheren Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Frederick Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Frederick Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Frederick Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Riverside Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Riverside Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Riverside Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Sunset Memorial Gardens
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Sunset Memorial Gardens
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Sunset Memorial Gardens have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Wetonka Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Wetonka Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Wetonka Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Houghton Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Houghton Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Houghton Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Savo Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
  • Pembrook Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Pembrook Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Pembrook Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • German Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the German Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the German Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Continue List   (25 more) ...
    • Peace Lutheran Cemetery
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Peace Lutheran Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Peace Lutheran Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • St. Hyacinth Cemetery
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Hyacinth Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Hyacinth Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • James Cemetery
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the James Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the James Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.

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 Westport had a population of 200 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Westport had a population of 132 people.

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

  • Ordway
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Ordway have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ordway
    • Ordway is located in Brown County
    • Estimated population in 2014: 306 people
  • Columbia
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
  • Aberdeen
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Aberdeen have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Aberdeen
    • Aberdeen is located in Brown County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 28,180 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Aberdeen <1>
  • Frederick
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
  • Plana
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Plana have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Plana
    • Plana is located in Brown County
  • Bath
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Houghton
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Putney
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Putney
    • Putney is located in Brown County
    • Estimated population in 2014: 104 people
  • James
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for James. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for James
    • James is located in Brown County
  • Mina
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mina
    • Mina is located in Edmunds County
    • Mina has also been known as:
    • Cortland
    • Cortlandt
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Mina <1>
  • Huffton
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Huffton have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Huffton
    • Huffton is located in Brown County
    • Estimated population in 2014: 316 people
  • Winship
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Winship have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Winship
    • Winship is located in Brown County
    • Estimated population in 2014: 2,862 people
  • Continue List   (15 more) ...
    • Rudolph
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Rudolph have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rudolph
      • Rudolph is located in Brown County
    • Leola
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Leola have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Leola
      • Leola is located in McPherson County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 420 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Leola <1>
    • Warner
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)

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

Newspapers Published in Westport ...

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 58 newspapers that have been published in the area around Westport.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Westport, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<6>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Westport.

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 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 Westport:

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

The official website for Brown County: www.brown.sd.us/

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

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 location has been supplied by the Geographic Names Information System - which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While these values should be definitive, we found that accuracy can vary and you should double-check the location if accuracy is required.
<3>An 'estimated' location is one where we have been given GPS coordinates, but are unable to verify the accuracy of those coordinates. That said, we have some confidence that we have placed the marker near the actual location. A typical reason for being unable to verify a location is that it might be on private property or maybe historic and gone without an obvious trace.
<4>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.
<5>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 Westport, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<6>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 drawn from Point A (ie- Westport) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Westport. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 45.6478, Longitude: -98.4976       In this case, the coordinates for Westport have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 29 Apr 2025