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

Pray is located in Jackson 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 Jackson County: Clark, Eau Claire, Juneau, La Crosse, Monroe, Trempealeau & Wood.

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

  • Jackson County     (The home county of Pray)
  • Clark County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Pray, with the one closest to Pray listed first.
    • Neillsville
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
      • Neillsville is located in Clark County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Neillsville
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,375 people
    • Granton
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
    • Chili
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
    • Globe
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Veefkind
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
    • Humbird
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Spokeville
      (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
    • Loyal
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
      • Loyal is located in Clark County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Loyal
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,229 people
    • Greenwood
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
    • Willard
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Crawford County
    • Lynxville
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Lynxville is located in Crawford County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lynxville
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 125 people
  • Eau Claire County
  • Juneau County
  • Marathon County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Pray, with the one closest to Pray listed first.
    • Spencer
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
    • McMillan
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Monroe County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Pray, with the one closest to Pray listed first.
    • Warrens
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
      • Warrens is located in Monroe County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Warrens
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 346 people
    • Valley Junction
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
    • Wyeville
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
      • Wyeville is located in Monroe County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wyeville
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 141 people
    • Shennington
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
    • Tunnel City
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
      • Tunnel City is located in Monroe County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tunnel City
    • Tomah
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
      • Tomah is located in Monroe County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tomah
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 9,363 people
    • Oakdale
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
  • Wood County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Pray, with the one closest to Pray listed first.
    • Lindsey
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Pittsville
      (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
      • Pittsville is located in Wood County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pittsville
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 820 people
    • Bakerville
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Arpin
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Arpin is located in Wood County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Arpin
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 305 people
    • Marshfield
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Vesper
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
    • Hewitt
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Eight Corners
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
    • Nekoosa
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
    • Auburndale
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Auburndale is located in Wood County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Auburndale
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 658 people

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

Cemeteries Near Pray ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Pray.

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

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Pray, with the one closest to Pray 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 in 1895, Pray had a post office and railroad service.

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

  • Spaulding
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Spaulding is located in Jackson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spaulding
  • Lapham Junction
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
  • Waterbury
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Waterbury is located in Jackson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Waterbury
  • City Point
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
  • Shortville
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
    • Shortville is located in Clark County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shortville
  • Nevins
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Nevins is located in Clark County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nevins
  • Lynxville
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Lynxville is located in Crawford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lynxville
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 125 people
  • Hatfield
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
  • Neillsville
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
    • Neillsville is located in Clark County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Neillsville
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,375 people
  • Millston
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Granton
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
  • Lindsey
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Continue List   (14 more) ...
    • Lynn
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
      • Lynn is located in Clark County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lynn
    • Sheppard
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Sheppard is located in Jackson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sheppard
    • Warrens
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
      • Warrens is located in Monroe County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Warrens
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 346 people

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

Newspapers Published in Pray ...

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 57 newspapers that have been published in the area around Pray.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Pray, there are papers which were published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Pray.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we start with the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These websites either 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 Pray:

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 Pray, 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 things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Pray) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.