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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 Skull Creek (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 Skull Creek. 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.

Name Variations for Skull Creek ...

When searching records, keep in mind that names and their spelling can change over time. Our sources include documents like maps, railroad schedules, Travel, Express and Shipping Guides. Many of these documents date from the 1800's and it's common to find spelling differences.

Although we can't give a definitive list, hopefully the following will give you a feel for the variations that might occur.

For example, a typical abbreviation for Skull Creek: Skull Crk. (or less commonly used: Skull Ck. or Skull Cr.)

You might be interested in other communities that are also named Skull Creek. More information can be found on our Tidbits & Trivia Page for Skull Creek.

If you have information about these names (such as the reason for the change, date of change, the origin of the name), please Contact Us.

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 and hospitals 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.

Skull Creek is located in Weston County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Weston County: Custer (SD), Lawrence (SD), Pennington (SD), Campbell, Converse, Crook & Niobrara.

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

  • Weston County     (The home county of Skull Creek)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Skull Creek, with the one closest to Skull Creek listed first.
    • Horton ‑ Historic
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
      • Horton is located in Weston County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Horton
    • Clay Spur
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
      • Clay Spur is located in Weston County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clay Spur
    • Osage
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
    • Four Corners
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
    • Upton
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
    • Cambria ‑ Historic
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Cambria is located in Weston County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cambria
    • Thornton
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
      • Thornton is located in Weston County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Thornton
    • Newcastle
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Hill View Heights
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
      • Hill View Heights is located in Weston County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hill View Heights
    • Spencer ‑ Historic
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
      • Spencer is located in Weston County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spencer
    • Fairview
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
      • Fairview is located in Weston County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fairview
  • Crook County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Skull Creek, with the one closest to Skull Creek listed first.
    • Moskee ‑ Historic
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
      • Moskee is located in Crook County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Moskee
    • Linden
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
      • Linden is located in Crook County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Linden
    • Sundance
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
    • Pine Haven
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Moorcroft
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
  • Lawrence County (SD)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Skull Creek, with the one closest to Skull Creek listed first.
    • Tinton ‑ Historic
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
      • Tinton is located in Lawrence County (SD)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tinton
      • Estimated population in 2014: 477 people
    • Savoy
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
      • Savoy is located in Lawrence County (SD)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Savoy
      • Estimated population in 2014: 71 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Savoy <1>
    • Dumont
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
      • Dumont is located in Lawrence County (SD)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dumont
      • Estimated population in 2014: 45 people
    • Preston
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Preston is located in Lawrence County (SD)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Preston
      • Estimated population in 2014: 185 people
    • Ragged Top ‑ Historic
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Ragged Top is located in Lawrence County (SD)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ragged Top
      • Estimated population in 2014: 73 people
    • Nahant
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
      • Nahant is located in Lawrence County (SD)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nahant
    • Maurice
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
      • Maurice is located in Lawrence County (SD)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Maurice
    • Trojan
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
      • Trojan is located in Lawrence County (SD)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Trojan
      • Estimated population in 2014: 627 people

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

Cemeteries Near Skull Creek ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Skull Creek.

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 Skull Creek - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

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

  • Jerome
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Jerome is located in Weston County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jerome
  • Pedro
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
    • Pedro is located in Weston County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pedro
  • Cambria ‑ Historic
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Cambria is located in Weston County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cambria
  • Linden
    (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
    • Linden is located in Crook County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Linden
  • Thornton
    (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
    • Thornton is located in Weston County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Thornton
  • Newcastle
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
  • Sundance
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
  • Spencer ‑ Historic
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Spencer is located in Weston County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spencer

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

Newspapers Published in Skull Creek ...

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 35 newspapers that have been published in the area around Skull Creek.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Skull Creek, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Skull Creek.

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 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 Skull Creek:

Footnotes ...

<1>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<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 Skull Creek, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<4>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Skull Creek) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.