RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Alabama >> Fayette County >> Alta >> Genealogy HelperIndex...

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 Alta (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 Alta. 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 southwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors were in the next county to the west. 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 west 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.

Alta is located in Fayette 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 Fayette County: Lamar, Marion, Pickens, Tuscaloosa & Walker.

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

  • Fayette County     (The home county of Alta)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Alta, with the one closest to Alta listed first.
    • Berry
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Bankston
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Rossland City
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
      • Rossland City is located in Fayette County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rossland City
    • Fayette
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
    • Old Town
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
      • Old Town is located in Fayette County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Old Town
    • Bazemore
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
    • Glen Allen
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Kirkland
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Belk
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
      • Belk is located in Fayette County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Belk
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 206 people
    • Bluff
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
      • Bluff is located in Fayette County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bluff
    • Ashcraft Corner
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
    • Gu - Win
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Jefferson County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Alta, with the one closest to Alta listed first.
    • Black Creek
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
    • Toadvine
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Short Creek
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
    • West Jefferson
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
      • West Jefferson is located in Jefferson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West Jefferson
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 415 people
    • Oak Grove
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
      • Oak Grove is located in Jefferson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oak Grove
    • Media
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
    • Ezra
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Ezra is located in Jefferson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ezra
    • Rock Creek
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Rock Creek is located in Jefferson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rock Creek
    • Sylvan Springs
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
  • Lamar County
    • Kennedy
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
      • Kennedy is located in Lamar County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kennedy
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 421 people
  • Marion County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Alta, with the one closest to Alta listed first.
    • Rock City
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
      • Rock City is located in Marion County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rock City
    • Winfield
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Brilliant
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Guin
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Twin
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Yampertown
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Pickens County
  • Tuscaloosa County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Alta, with the one closest to Alta listed first.
    • New Lexington
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Samantha
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
    • Bull City
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
      • Bull City is located in Tuscaloosa County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bull City
    • Lake Front Village
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
      • Lake Front Village is located in Tuscaloosa County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lake Front Village
    • Kellerman
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Echola
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Echola is located in Tuscaloosa County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Echola
    • Wood Village
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
      • Wood Village is located in Tuscaloosa County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wood Village
    • Coker
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
      • 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>
    • Holt
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
      • Holt is located in Tuscaloosa County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Holt
    • Northport
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
    • Peterson
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
  • Walker County
  • Winston County

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

Cemeteries Near Alta ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Alta.

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

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Alta, with the one closest to Alta 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.<2>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that in 1895, Alta had railroad service and no post office.

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

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

Newspapers Published in Alta ...

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 36 newspapers that have been published in the area around Alta.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Alta, there are papers which were published within 20 miles [32.2 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Alta.

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 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 Alta:

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 Alta, 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' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Alta) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.