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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 Wolsey (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 Wolsey. 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 doctors and hospitals 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.

Wolsey is located in Beadle 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 Beadle County: Clark, Hand, Jerauld, Kingsbury, Miner, Sanborn & Spink.

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

  • Beadle County     (The home county of Wolsey)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Wolsey, with the one closest to Wolsey listed first.
    • Broadland
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
      • Broadland is located in Beadle County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Broadland
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 32 people
    • Virgil
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
    • Bonilla
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
      • Bonilla is located in Beadle County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bonilla
    • Wessington
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
    • Huron
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
      • Huron is located in Beadle County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Huron
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 13,420 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Huron <1>
    • Morningside
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
      • Morningside is located in Beadle County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Morningside
    • Hitchcock
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
    • Huron Colony
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Huron Colony is located in Beadle County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Huron Colony
      • Estimated population in 2014: 403 people
    • Cavour
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
    • Yale
      (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
  • Hand County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Wolsey, with the one closest to Wolsey listed first.
    • Saint Lawrence
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
    • Miller
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
  • Jerauld County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Wolsey, with the one closest to Wolsey listed first.
    • Alpena
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
    • Lane
      (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
    • Wessington Springs
      (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
  • Kingsbury County
    • Iroquois
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
  • Sanborn County
    • Woonsocket
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
  • Spink County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Wolsey, with the one closest to Wolsey listed first.
    • Spottswood
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
      • Spottswood is located in Spink County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spottswood
    • Tulare
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
    • Spink Colony
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
      • Spink Colony is located in Spink County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spink Colony
      • Estimated population in 2014: 155 people
    • LaDelle
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
      • LaDelle is located in Spink County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for LaDelle

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

Cemeteries Near Wolsey ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Wolsey.

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

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

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

  • St. Johns Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
  • Wolsey Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
  • Broadland Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
  • McCord Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
  • Bonilla Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
  • McNair Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
  • Wessington Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wessington Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Wessington Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located outside of Wessington
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #97801 <2>
  • Zion Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
  • Restlawn Memory Garden
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Ideal Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
  • Riverside Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
  • Altoona Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
  • Continue List   (47 more) ...
    • Earlville Cemetery
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
    • St. Martin Cemetery
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
    • Rosehill Cemetery
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)

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.<3>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that in 1895, Wolsey had a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Wolsey had a population of 400 people.

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

  • Virgil
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
  • Broadland
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Broadland is located in Beadle County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Broadland
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 32 people
  • James Valley Junction
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
  • Bonilla
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
    • Bonilla is located in Beadle County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bonilla
  • Wessington
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
  • Huron
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
    • Huron is located in Beadle County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Huron
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 13,420 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Huron <1>
  • Hitchcock
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
  • Alpena
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
  • Spottswood
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
    • Spottswood is located in Spink County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spottswood
  • Sheffield
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
    • Sheffield is located in Beadle County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sheffield
  • Cavour
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
  • Tulare
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
  • Continue List   (10 more) ...
    • Wessington Springs
      (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
    • Yale
      (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
    • Saint Lawrence
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Wolsey ...

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 52 newspapers that have been published in the area around Wolsey.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Wolsey. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Wolsey and those printed in the larger area surrounding Wolsey.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<4> of Wolsey.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we begin 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 Wolsey:

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>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 Wolsey, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<4>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Wolsey) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.