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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 Waupun (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 Waupun. 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 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 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.

Waupun is primarily located in Dodge County. A portion of Waupun extends into Fond du Lac 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 Dodge County: Columbia, Dane, Fond du Lac, Green Lake, Jefferson, Washington & Waukesha.

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

  • Dodge County     (The home county of Waupun)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Waupun, with the one closest to Waupun listed first.
    • Atwater
      (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Burnett
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
    • Fox Lake
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Fox Lake is located in Dodge County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fox Lake
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,440 people
    • Brownsville
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
      • Brownsville is located in Dodge County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brownsville
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 585 people
    • Knowles
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
    • Kekoskee
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Kekoskee is located in Dodge County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kekoskee
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 891 people
    • Minnesota Junction
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
    • Horicon
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
      • Horicon is located in Dodge County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Horicon
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 3,680 people
    • Mayville
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
      • Mayville is located in Dodge County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mayville
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 4,829 people
    • Beaver Dam
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Lomira
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
    • Juneau
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
    • Randolph
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Randolph is located in Dodge County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Randolph
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,738 people
  • Columbia County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Waupun, with the one closest to Waupun listed first.
    • Friesland
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
      • Friesland is located in Columbia County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Friesland
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 341 people
    • Cambria
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
    • Englewood
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Fall River
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
    • Columbus
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Doylestown
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Otsego
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Rio
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Rio is located in Columbia County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rio
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,047 people
    • Pardeeville
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
      • Pardeeville is located in Columbia County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pardeeville
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,053 people
    • Wyocena
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
      • Wyocena is located in Columbia County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wyocena
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 727 people
      • Former names for Wyocena:
      • Duck Creek
      • Wiocena
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Wyocena
      • From Waupun to Wyocena
  • Fond du Lac County
  • Green Lake County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Waupun, with the one closest to Waupun listed first.
    • Utley
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Markesan
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
      • Markesan is located in Green Lake County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Markesan
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,389 people
    • Green Lake
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
      • Green Lake is located in Green Lake County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Green Lake
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 959 people
    • Kingston
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
    • Marquette
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
      • Marquette is located in Green Lake County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Marquette
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 154 people
    • Princeton
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Berlin
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
  • Jefferson County
  • Washington County
  • Winnebago County

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

Cemeteries Near Waupun ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Waupun.

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

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Waupun, with the one closest to Waupun 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 Waupun in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Waupun.

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

  • Alto
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Alto is located in Fond du Lac County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Alto
  • Atwater
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
  • Oak Center
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Oak Center is located in Fond du Lac County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oak Center
  • Ladoga
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Brandon
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
  • Burnett
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
  • LeRoy
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
    • LeRoy is located in Dodge County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for LeRoy
  • Oakfield
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
  • Fox Lake
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Fox Lake is located in Dodge County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fox Lake
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,440 people
  • Fairwater
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
  • Utley
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
  • Fox Lake Junction
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Fox Lake Junction is located in Dodge County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fox Lake Junction
  • Continue List   (13 more) ...
    • Kekoskee
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Kekoskee is located in Dodge County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kekoskee
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 891 people
    • Knowles
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
    • Brownsville
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
      • Brownsville is located in Dodge County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brownsville
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 585 people

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Waupun ...

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 106 newspapers that have been published in the area around Waupun.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Waupun. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Waupun and those printed in the larger area surrounding Waupun.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 26 miles [41.8 km]<1> of Waupun.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we begin 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 Waupun:

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 drawn from Point A (ie- Waupun) 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 Waupun, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.