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Introduction ...

So far, we found very little information about Fort Morgan. The little that we've found leads us believe that the community is historic.<1>

We've added Fort Morgan to our Gazetteer with the hope that we can develop more information. If you can help us with Fort Morgan, please Contact Us.

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 Fort Morgan (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 Fort Morgan. 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 Fort Morgan ...

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 have occurred.

Prior to its current name of Fort Morgan, it was known as Fort Bowyer.

  • A typical abbreviation for Fort Morgan: Ft. Morgan

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.

Although our information shows that the community of Fort Morgan is historic, it would have been located within present day Baldwin County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Baldwin County: Clarke, Escambia, Mobile, Monroe, Washington & Escambia (FL).

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

  • Baldwin County     (The home county of Fort Morgan)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Fort Morgan, with the one closest to Fort Morgan listed first.
    • Gasque
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Gasque have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gasque
      • Gasque is located in Baldwin County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Gasque <3>
    • Oyster Bay
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oyster Bay
      • Oyster Bay is located in Baldwin County
    • Yupon
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Yupon
      • Yupon is located in Baldwin County
    • Bon Secour
      (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Bon Secour have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bon Secour
      • Bon Secour is located in Baldwin County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Bon Secour <3>
    • Point Clear
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Point Clear have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Point Clear
      • Point Clear is located in Baldwin County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Point Clear <3>
    • Magnolia Springs
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
    • Gulf Shores
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Gulf Shores have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gulf Shores
      • Gulf Shores is located in Baldwin County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 13,166 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Gulf Shores <3>
    • Fairhope
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
    • Clay City
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Clay City have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clay City
      • Clay City is located in Baldwin County
    • Foley
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Foley
      • Foley is located in Baldwin County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 21,446 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Foley <3>
    • Montrose
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
    • Orange Beach
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Orange Beach have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Orange Beach
      • Orange Beach is located in Baldwin County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 6,343 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Orange Beach <3>
  • Mobile County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Fort Morgan, with the one closest to Fort Morgan listed first.
    • Fort Gaines ‑ Historic
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Fort Gaines have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fort Gaines
      • Fort Gaines is located in Mobile County
    • Dauphin Island
      (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dauphin Island
      • Dauphin Island is located in Mobile County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,366 people
    • Alabama Port
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Alabama Port have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Alabama Port
      • Alabama Port is located in Mobile County
    • Mon Louis
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Mon Louis have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mon Louis
      • Mon Louis is located in Mobile County
    • Coden
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Coden have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Coden
      • Coden is located in Mobile County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Coden <3>
    • Bellefontaine
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bellefontaine
      • Bellefontaine is located in Mobile County
    • Bayou La Batre
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Bayou La Batre have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bayou La Batre
      • Bayou La Batre is located in Mobile County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,457 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Bayou La Batre <3>
    • Irvington
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Irvington have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Irvington
      • Irvington is located in Mobile County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Irvington <3>
    • Saint Elmo
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Saint Elmo have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Saint Elmo
      • Saint Elmo is located in Mobile County
    • Theodore
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Theodore have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Theodore
      • Theodore is located in Mobile County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Theodore <3>
    • Grand Bay
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Grand Bay have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grand Bay
      • Grand Bay is located in Mobile County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Grand Bay <3>
    • Tillmans Corner
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tillmans Corner
      • Tillmans Corner is located in Mobile County
  • Jackson County (MS)
    • Orange Grove
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Orange Grove have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Orange Grove
      • Orange Grove is located in Jackson County (MS)

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

Newspapers Published in Fort Morgan ...

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 9 newspapers that have been published in the area around Fort Morgan.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Fort Morgan, there are papers which were published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Fort Morgan.

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 Fort Morgan:

Cemeteries Near Fort Morgan ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Fort Morgan.

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 Fort Morgan covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Fort Morgan, with the one closest to Fort Morgan listed first.

  • Dauphin Island Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
  • Dauphin Island Community Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
  • Alabama Port Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Alabama Port Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Alabama Port Cemetery
  • Reeds Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Reeds Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Reeds Cemetery
  • Dorlon Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Shell Banks Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
  • English Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the English Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the English Cemetery
  • Miller Memorial Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
  • Cold Springs Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Cold Springs Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Cold Springs Cemetery
  • Roberts Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Roberts Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Roberts Cemetery
  • Benton Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
  • Brook Cedron Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Brook Cedron Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Brook Cedron Cemetery
  • Continue List   (65 more) ...

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.

While we didn't find Fort Morgan in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Fort Morgan.

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

  • Gasque
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Gasque have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gasque
    • Gasque is located in Baldwin County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Gasque <3>
  • Mon Louis
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Mon Louis have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mon Louis
    • Mon Louis is located in Mobile County
  • Coden
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Coden have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Coden
    • Coden is located in Mobile County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Coden <3>
  • Bon Secour
    (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Bon Secour have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bon Secour
    • Bon Secour is located in Baldwin County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Bon Secour <3>
  • Fowl River
    (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Fowl River have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fowl River
    • Fowl River is located in Mobile County
  • Magnolia Springs
    (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
  • Point Clear
    (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Point Clear have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Point Clear
    • Point Clear is located in Baldwin County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Point Clear <3>
  • Bayou La Batre
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Bayou La Batre have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bayou La Batre
    • Bayou La Batre is located in Mobile County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,457 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Bayou La Batre <3>
  • Marlow
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Marlow have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Marlow
    • Marlow is located in Baldwin County
  • Theodore
    (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Theodore have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Theodore
    • Theodore is located in Mobile County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Theodore <3>
  • Saint Elmo
    (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Saint Elmo have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Saint Elmo
    • Saint Elmo is located in Mobile County
  • Fernland
    (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Fernland have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fernland
    • Fernland is located in Mobile County
  • Continue List   (6 more) ...
    • Montrose
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
    • Swift
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Swift have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Swift
      • Swift is located in Baldwin County
    • Grand Bay
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Grand Bay have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grand Bay
      • Grand Bay is located in Mobile County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Grand Bay <3>

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

The official website for Baldwin County: www.co.baldwin.al.us/

The official website for State of Alabama: https://www.alabama.gov/

Footnotes ...

<1>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 Fort Morgan, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<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>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- Fort Morgan) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Fort Morgan. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 30.2285, Longitude: -88.0231       In this case, the coordinates for Fort Morgan have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>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.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024