RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Wisconsin >> Dane County >> Martinsville >> 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 Martinsville (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 Martinsville. 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 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.

Martinsville is located in Dane County.

To see how the shape of Wisconsin's counties may have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Dane County: Columbia, Dodge, Green, Iowa, Jefferson, Rock & Sauk.

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

  • Dane County     (The home county of Martinsville)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Martinsville, with the one closest to Martinsville listed first.
    • Ashton
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Marxville
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
    • Ashton Corners
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Cross Plains
      (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
      • Cross Plains is located in Dane County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cross Plains
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 4,280 people
    • Waunakee
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
      • Waunakee is located in Dane County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Waunakee
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 14,188 people
    • Dane
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Dane is located in Dane County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dane
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,134 people
    • Middleton
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Middleton is located in Dane County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Middleton
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 20,195 people
    • Pheasant Branch
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Pheasant Branch is located in Dane County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pheasant Branch
    • Black Earth
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Mendota
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
    • Pilgrim Village
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Pilgrim Village is located in Dane County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pilgrim Village
    • Mazomanie
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
      • Mazomanie is located in Dane County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mazomanie
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,715 people
  • Columbia County
  • Green County
  • Iowa County
  • Jefferson County
  • Lafayette County
  • Richland County
    • Lone Rock
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
      • Lone Rock is located in Richland County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lone Rock
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 835 people
  • Rock County
  • Sauk County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Martinsville, with the one closest to Martinsville listed first.
    • Sauk City
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Sauk City is located in Sauk County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sauk City
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 3,498 people
    • Prairie du Sac village
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Merrimac
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
      • Merrimac is located in Sauk County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Merrimac
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 441 people
    • Moon Valley
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
    • Witwen
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Denzer
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
    • Leland
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Baraboo
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
    • West Baraboo
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
      • West Baraboo is located in Sauk County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West Baraboo
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,416 people
    • North Freedom
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
      • North Freedom is located in Sauk County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Freedom
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 690 people
    • Plain
      (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
      • Plain is located in Sauk County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Plain
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 765 people
    • Spring Green
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
      • Spring Green is located in Sauk County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spring Green
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,630 people

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

Cemeteries Near Martinsville ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Martinsville.

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

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

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

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>

While we didn't find Martinsville in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Martinsville.

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

  • Springfield Corners
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
    • Springfield Corners is located in Dane County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Springfield Corners
  • Ashton
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
  • Marxville
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
  • Cross Plains
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Cross Plains is located in Dane County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cross Plains
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 4,280 people
  • Middleton
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Middleton is located in Dane County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Middleton
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 20,195 people
  • Waunakee
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Waunakee is located in Dane County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Waunakee
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 14,188 people
  • Dane
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Dane is located in Dane County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dane
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,134 people
  • Roxbury
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Roxbury is located in Dane County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Roxbury
  • Pheasant Branch
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Pheasant Branch is located in Dane County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pheasant Branch
  • Black Earth
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
  • Pine Bluff
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
    • Pine Bluff is located in Dane County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pine Bluff
  • West Middleton
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
    • West Middleton is located in Dane County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West Middleton
  • Continue List   (13 more) ...
    • Lodi
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
    • Sauk City
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Sauk City is located in Sauk County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sauk City
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 3,498 people
    • Riley
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
      • Riley is located in Dane County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Riley

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

Newspapers Published in Martinsville ...

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 250 newspapers that have been published in the area around Martinsville.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Martinsville, there are papers which were published within 25 miles [40.2 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Martinsville.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first turn to 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 Martinsville:

Footnotes ...

<1>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.
<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 Martinsville, 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' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Martinsville) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.