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A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
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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 Akron (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 Akron. 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 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.

Akron is located in Hale County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Hale County: Bibb, Greene, Marengo, Perry & Tuscaloosa.

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

  • Hale County     (The home county of Akron)
  • Bibb County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Akron, with the one closest to Akron listed first.
    • Pondville
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
    • Egypt ‑ Historic
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
      • Egypt is located in Bibb County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Egypt
  • Greene County
  • Marengo County
  • Perry County
  • Pickens County
  • Sumter County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Akron, with the one closest to Akron listed first.
    • Gainesville
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
    • Epes
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
      • Epes is located in Sumter County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Epes
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 326 people
    • McDowell
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Moore Town
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Moore Town is located in Sumter County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Moore Town
    • Panola
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
  • Tuscaloosa County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Akron, with the one closest to Akron listed first.
    • Ralph
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
    • Foster's
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
    • Duncanville
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
      • Duncanville is located in Tuscaloosa County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Duncanville
    • Sahama Village
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
      • Sahama Village is located in Tuscaloosa County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sahama Village
    • Ingleside Village
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
      • Ingleside Village is located in Tuscaloosa County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ingleside Village
    • Tuscaloosa
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Coker
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
      • Coker is located in Tuscaloosa County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Coker
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 953 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Coker <1>
    • Hagler
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
    • University
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Buhl
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
      • Buhl is located in Tuscaloosa County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Buhl
    • Elrod
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
      • Elrod is located in Tuscaloosa County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elrod
    • Alberta City
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
      • Alberta City is located in Tuscaloosa County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Alberta City

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

Cemeteries Near Akron ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Akron.

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

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

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

  • Akron New Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
  • Mt. Zion Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
  • Mileous Chapel Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
  • Sample Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
  • Five Mile Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
  • Mt. Hebron Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
  • Long Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
  • Springhill Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
  • Harris Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
  • Williams Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
  • Martin Mission Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
  • Langham Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
  • Continue List   (458 more) ...
    • Wilson Cemetery
      (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Concord Cemetery
      (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
    • New Bethany Cemetery
      (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)

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>

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

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

  • Evansville
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
    • Evansville is located in Hale County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Evansville
  • Havana
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
    • Havana is located in Hale County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Havana
  • Powers
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Eutaw
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
  • Sawyerville
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
  • Knoxville
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
    • Knoxville is located in Greene County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Knoxville
  • Union
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Union is located in Greene County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Union
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 207 people
  • Sylvan
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
    • Sylvan is located in Tuscaloosa County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sylvan
  • Greensboro
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Phipps ‑ Historic
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
  • Clinton
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
  • Hull
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Hull is located in Tuscaloosa County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hull
  • Continue List   (13 more) ...

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

Newspapers Published in Akron ...

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 24 newspapers that have been published in the area around Akron.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Akron, there are papers which were published within 17 miles [27.4 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Akron.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first visit the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These 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 Akron:

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>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 Akron, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<3>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- Akron) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.