RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Wyoming >> Converse County >> Douglas >> Genealogy HelperIndex










Learn About
The Commemorative
Quarter for
Wyoming

The Commemorative Quarter for Wyoming





Our Genealogy Helper for Douglas ...

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 Douglas (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 Douglas. 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 northwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors and hospitals were in the next county to the west. 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 west 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.

Douglas is located in Converse County and is the County Seat.

To see how the shape of Wyoming's counties have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Converse County: Albany, Campbell, Carbon, Johnson, Natrona, Niobrara, Platte & Weston.

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

  • Converse County     (The home county of Douglas)
    • Orin
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Orin
      • Orin lies 12 miles [19.3 km]<1> to the southeast of Douglas.
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Orin have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to Google Maps centered on Orin
    • Shawnee
    • Lost Springs
    • Esterbrook
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Esterbrook
      • Esterbrook lies 24 miles [38.6 km]<1> to the south of Douglas.
      • Jump to Google Maps centered on Esterbrook
    • Rolling Hills
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rolling Hills
      • Rolling Hills lies 25 miles [40.2 km]<1> to the northwest of Douglas.
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 420 people
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Rolling Hills have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to Google Maps centered on Rolling Hills
    • Glenrock
    • Boxelder
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Boxelder
      • Boxelder lies 26 miles [41.8 km]<1> to the southwest of Douglas.
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Boxelder have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to Google Maps centered on Boxelder
    • Bill
  • Albany County
    • Binford
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Binford
      • Binford lies 29 miles [46.7 km]<1> to the south of Douglas.
      • Jump to Google Maps centered on Binford
  • Niobrara County
  • Platte County
    • Glendo

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Douglas ...

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 16 newspapers that have been published in the area around Douglas.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Douglas. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Douglas and those printed in the larger area surrounding Douglas.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 38 miles [61.2 km] of Douglas.

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 Douglas:

  • Of Special Interest ...
    • The GenDisasters website specializes in newspaper articles about tragedies and disasters. While it makes interesting reading all by itself, it should be of special interest to genealogists and family historians looking for people who were either affected by or directly involved in such tragedies.
    • At this time (Dec 2022), GenDisasters website is currently offline due to a hacker attack. Hopefully they will be back soon.
    • Stories from Wyoming

Cemeteries Near Douglas ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Douglas.

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.

If you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our selection of Genealogy Websites (see below).

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

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.<5>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Douglas had a population of 491 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Douglas had a population of 6,375 people.

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

  • Douglas
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Douglas
    • Douglas lies less than 2 miles<1> to the southeast of Douglas.
    • According to the 1895 Rand McNally Atlas, the estimated population in 1895: 491 people
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 6,375 people
    • From the 1895 Atlas, Douglas had a post office and railroad service
    • Jump to Google Maps centered on Douglas
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Douglas<3>
  • Irvine
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Irvine
    • Irvine lies 7 miles [11.3 km]<1> to the southeast of Douglas.
    • From the 1895 Rand McNally Atlas, Irvine had railroad service and no post office
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Irvine have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to Google Maps centered on Irvine
  • Orin Junction
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Orin Junction
    • Orin Junction lies 12 miles [19.3 km]<1> to the southeast of Douglas.
    • From the 1895 Rand McNally Atlas, Orin Junction had a post office and railroad service
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Orin Junction have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to Google Maps centered on Orin Junction
  • Bona
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bona
    • Bona lies 17 miles [27.4 km]<1> to the southeast of Douglas.
    • From the 1895 Rand McNally Atlas, Bona had railroad service and no post office
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Bona have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to Google Maps centered on Bona
  • Shawnee
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shawnee
    • Shawnee lies 18 miles [29 km]<1> to the east of Douglas.
    • From the 1895 Rand McNally Atlas, Shawnee had railroad service and no post office
    • Jump to Google Maps centered on Shawnee
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Shawnee<3>
  • Lost Springs
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lost Springs
    • Lost Springs lies 23 miles [37 km]<1> to the east of Douglas.
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 4 people
    • From the 1895 Rand McNally Atlas, Lost Springs had railroad service and no post office
    • Jump to Google Maps centered on Lost Springs
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Lost Springs<3>
  • Glendo
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Glendo
    • Glendo lies 25 miles [40.2 km]<1> to the southeast of Douglas.
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 208 people
    • From the 1895 Rand McNally Atlas, Glendo had a post office and railroad service
    • Jump to Google Maps centered on Glendo
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Glendo<3>
  • Glenrock
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Glenrock
    • Glenrock lies 25 miles [40.2 km]<1> to the west of Douglas.
    • According to the 1895 Rand McNally Atlas, the estimated population in 1895: 492 people
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,567 people
    • From the 1895 Atlas, Glenrock had a post office and railroad service
    • Jump to Google Maps centered on Glenrock
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Glenrock<3>
  • Boxelder
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Boxelder
    • Boxelder lies 26 miles [41.8 km]<1> to the southwest of Douglas.
    • From the 1895 Rand McNally Atlas, Boxelder had a post office and no railroad service
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Boxelder have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to Google Maps centered on Boxelder

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

The official website for Douglas: www.cityofdouglaswy.com/

The official website for Converse County: www.conversecounty.org/

The official website for State of Wyoming: www.wyo.gov/

Footnotes ...

<1>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 from Point A (ie- Douglas) to Point B.If you need the driving distance, we recommend that you use one of the Mapping Services listed on our Map Page for Douglas. Since we usually use Google Maps, we've provided the following link for your convenience: Google Map and Driving Directions starting from DouglasOur distance measurements begin at a specific point in Douglas. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 42.7595, Longitude: -105.3827    
<2>The location has been supplied by the Geographic Names Information System - which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While these values should be definitive, we found that accuracy can vary and you should double-check the location if accuracy is required.
<3>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<4>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.
<5>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 Douglas, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

 

 

Copyright 2023
All Rights Reserved

Thank you for visiting our website.

In closing, please keep in mind that we can not guarantee the accuracy or timeliness of the information on this website, so use with care. We encourage you to double-check the information that is critical to you.

If you've found an error or have additional information that you would like to share, please don't hesitate to write: Click here to contact us.

This page was last modified/updated: 17 May 2023