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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 Nekoosa (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 Nekoosa. 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 hospitals 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.

Nekoosa is located in Wood 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 Wood County: Adams, Clark, Jackson, Juneau, Marathon & Portage.

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

  • Wood County     (The home county of Nekoosa)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Nekoosa, with the one closest to Nekoosa listed first.
    • Port Edwards
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Wisconsin Rapids
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Grand Rapids
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Lake Wazeecha
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
      • Lake Wazeecha is located in Wood County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lake Wazeecha
    • Eight Corners
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
    • Biron
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Biron is located in Wood County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Biron
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 761 people
    • Vesper
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
    • Rudolph
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
      • Rudolph is located in Wood County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rudolph
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 411 people
    • Pittsville
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Pittsville is located in Wood County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pittsville
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 820 people
    • Arpin
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
      • Arpin is located in Wood County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Arpin
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 305 people
    • Sherry
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
    • Blenker
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
  • Adams County
  • Jackson County
  • Juneau County
  • Marathon County
  • Monroe County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Nekoosa, with the one closest to Nekoosa listed first.
    • Shennington
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Valley Junction
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Wyeville
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Wyeville is located in Monroe County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wyeville
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 141 people
  • Portage County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Nekoosa, with the one closest to Nekoosa listed first.
    • Junction City
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
      • Junction City is located in Portage County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Junction City
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 439 people
    • Plover
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Plover is located in Portage County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Plover
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 13,252 people
    • Whiting
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Whiting is located in Portage County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Whiting
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,704 people
    • Park Ridge
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
      • Park Ridge is located in Portage County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Park Ridge
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 496 people
    • Stevens Point
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Almond
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
    • Arnott
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Custer
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Ellis
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Torun
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Blaine
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
    • Polonia
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Waushara County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Nekoosa, with the one closest to Nekoosa listed first.
    • Plainfield
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
      • Plainfield is located in Waushara County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Plainfield
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 832 people
    • Hancock
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
      • Hancock is located in Waushara County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hancock
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 402 people
    • Coloma
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Coloma is located in Waushara County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Coloma
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 444 people

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

Cemeteries Near Nekoosa ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Nekoosa.

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

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Nekoosa, with the one closest to Nekoosa 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.<3>

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

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

  • Port Edwards
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
  • New Rome ‑ Historic
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
  • Walker
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Walker is located in Wood County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Walker
  • Babcock
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
    • Babcock is located in Wood County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Babcock
  • Vesper
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
  • Monroe Center
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
    • Monroe Center is located in Adams County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Monroe Center
  • Rudolph
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
    • Rudolph is located in Wood County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rudolph
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 411 people
  • Pittsville
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Pittsville is located in Wood County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pittsville
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 820 people
  • Veedum
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Veedum is located in Wood County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Veedum
  • Meehan
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Meehan is located in Portage County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Meehan
  • Sprague
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Meadow Valley
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Meadow Valley is located in Juneau County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Meadow Valley
  • Continue List   (14 more) ...

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Nekoosa ...

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 49 newspapers that have been published in the area around Nekoosa.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Nekoosa. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Nekoosa and those printed in the larger area surrounding Nekoosa.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<1> of Nekoosa.

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 Nekoosa:

Footnotes ...

<1>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- Nekoosa) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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 Nekoosa, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.