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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 Poynette (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 Poynette. 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.

Poynette is located in Columbia 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 Columbia County: Adams, Dane, Dodge, Green Lake, Juneau, Marquette & Sauk.

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

  • Columbia County     (The home county of Poynette)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Poynette, with the one closest to Poynette listed first.
    • Arlington
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • North Leeds
      (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Harmony Grove
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Wyocena
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Lodi
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Lake Wisconsin
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
      • Lake Wisconsin is located in Columbia County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lake Wisconsin
    • Rio
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
      • Rio is located in Columbia County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rio
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,047 people
    • Keyeser
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Okee
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
    • Durwards Glen ‑ Historic
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
    • Otsego
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
    • Pardeeville
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Pardeeville is located in Columbia County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pardeeville
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,053 people
  • Adams County
  • Dane County
  • Dodge County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Poynette, with the one closest to Poynette listed first.
    • Randolph
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
      • Randolph is located in Dodge County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Randolph
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,738 people
    • Astico
      (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
    • Fox Lake
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
      • Fox Lake is located in Dodge County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fox Lake
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,440 people
    • Beaver Dam
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
    • Reeseville
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
    • Lowell
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
      • Lowell is located in Dodge County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lowell
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 322 people
  • Green Lake County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Poynette, with the one closest to Poynette listed first.
    • Kingston
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Marquette
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
      • Marquette is located in Green Lake County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Marquette
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 154 people
    • Markesan
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
      • Markesan is located in Green Lake County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Markesan
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,389 people
  • Iowa County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Poynette, with the one closest to Poynette listed first.
    • Cassell
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Arena
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Jefferson County
  • Marquette County
  • Sauk County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Poynette, with the one closest to Poynette listed first.
    • Merrimac
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
      • 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 west)
    • Prairie du Sac village
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Baraboo
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
    • Sauk City
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
      • Sauk City is located in Sauk County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sauk City
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 3,498 people
    • West Baraboo
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
      • 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 west)
      • North Freedom is located in Sauk County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Freedom
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 690 people
    • Lake Delton
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Denzer
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
    • Witwen
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
    • Rock Springs
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
      • Rock Springs is located in Sauk County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rock Springs
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 361 people
    • Leland
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)

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

Cemeteries Near Poynette ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Poynette.

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

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

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

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Poynette had a population of 517 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Poynette had a population of 2,508 people.

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

  • Arlington
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
  • Lowville
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Lowville is located in Columbia County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lowville
  • North Leeds
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
  • Dekorra
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
    • Dekorra is located in Columbia County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dekorra
  • Leeds
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Leeds is located in Columbia County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Leeds
  • Lodi
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Morrisonville
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
  • Wyocena
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
  • Okee
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
  • Norway Grove
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
    • Norway Grove is located in Dane County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Norway Grove
  • Keyeser
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Rio
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Rio is located in Columbia County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rio
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,047 people
  • Continue List   (16 more) ...
    • Dane
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Dane is located in Dane County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dane
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,134 people
    • DeForest
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
    • Portage
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Poynette ...

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 165 newspapers that have been published in the area around Poynette.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Poynette. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Poynette and those printed in the larger area surrounding Poynette.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 26 miles [41.8 km]<3> of Poynette.

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 Poynette:

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 Poynette, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<3>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Poynette) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.