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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 Plainville (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 Plainville. 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.

Plainville is located in Adams 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 Adams County: Columbia, Juneau, Marquette, Portage, Sauk, Waushara & Wood.

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

  • Adams County     (The home county of Plainville)
  • Columbia County
  • Juneau County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Plainville, with the one closest to Plainville listed first.
    • Lyndon Station
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
      • Lyndon Station is located in Juneau County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lyndon Station
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 485 people
    • Lemonweir
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Mauston
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Mauston is located in Juneau County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mauston
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 4,358 people
    • Wonewoc
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
      • Wonewoc is located in Juneau County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wonewoc
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 789 people
    • New Lisbon
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Union Center
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
    • Elroy
      (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
      • Elroy is located in Juneau County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elroy
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,306 people
    • Hustler
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Necedah
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Camp Douglas
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Marquette County
  • Monroe County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Plainville, with the one closest to Plainville listed first.
    • Kendall
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
      • Kendall is located in Monroe County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kendall
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 472 people
    • Clifton
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Richland County
  • Sauk County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Plainville, with the one closest to Plainville listed first.
    • Lake Delton
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Reedsburg
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Reedsburg is located in Sauk County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Reedsburg
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 9,500 people
    • Baraboo
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
    • Rock Springs
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
      • Rock Springs is located in Sauk County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rock Springs
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 361 people
    • West Baraboo
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
      • 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
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
      • North Freedom is located in Sauk County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Freedom
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 690 people
    • La Valle
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
    • Ironton
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
      • Ironton is located in Sauk County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ironton
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 251 people
    • Loganville
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Lime Ridge
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
    • Moon Valley
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
    • Merrimac
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
      • Merrimac is located in Sauk County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Merrimac
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 441 people
    • Denzer
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
  • Vernon County
  • Waushara County
    • Coloma
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
      • 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 Plainville, see our County-by-County Page for Plainville.

Cemeteries Near Plainville ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Plainville.

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

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Plainville, with the one closest to Plainville 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>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Plainville had a population of 20 people in 1895 with a post office and no railroad service.

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

  • Lyndon Station
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Lyndon Station is located in Juneau County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lyndon Station
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 485 people
  • Dell Prairie ‑ Historic
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Dell Prairie is located in Adams County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dell Prairie
  • White Creek
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
    • White Creek is located in Adams County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for White Creek
  • Big Spring
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
    • Big Spring is located in Adams County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Big Spring
  • Easton
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
  • Briggsville
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
    • Briggsville is located in Marquette County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Briggsville
  • Lemonweir
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Douglas Center
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
  • Oxford
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Quincy ‑ Historic
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
  • New Chester ‑ Historic
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
    • New Chester is located in Adams County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for New Chester
  • Grand Marsh
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Grand Marsh is located in Adams County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grand Marsh
  • Continue List   (14 more) ...
    • Adams Center ‑ Historic
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
      • Adams Center is located in Adams County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Adams Center
    • Mauston
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Mauston is located in Juneau County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mauston
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 4,358 people
    • Reedsburg
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Reedsburg is located in Sauk County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Reedsburg
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 9,500 people

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

Newspapers Published in Plainville ...

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 129 newspapers that have been published in the area around Plainville.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Plainville, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<2>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Plainville.

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 professional and volunteer 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 Plainville:

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