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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 Cecil (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 Cecil. 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 southeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals and doctors were in the next county to the east. 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 east 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.

Cecil is located in Montgomery 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 Montgomery County: Autauga, Bullock, Crenshaw, Elmore, Lowndes, Macon & Pike.

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

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

Cemeteries Near Cecil ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Cecil.

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

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

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

  • Hill Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
  • Barnett Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Judkins Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
  • Brighter Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
  • Mathis Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Hardt Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Gilmer Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Meriwether Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
  • Lucas Hill Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
  • Oswalt Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
  • Mt. Zion Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
  • White Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
  • Continue List   (313 more) ...
    • Manning Springs / McDade Cemetery
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • St. James Cemetery
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Birch Hill Cemetery
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)

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 Cecil in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Cecil.

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

  • Mount Meigs
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Cross Keys
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
    • Cross Keys is located in Macon County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cross Keys
  • Shorter
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Pike Road
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
  • Perry's Mill
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Perry's Mill is located in Montgomery County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Perry's Mill
  • Ware
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
  • La Place
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Barachias
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
    • Barachias is located in Montgomery County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Barachias
  • Shopton
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
    • Shopton is located in Bullock County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shopton
  • Thompson
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Thompson is located in Bullock County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Thompson
  • Hector
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Hector is located in Bullock County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hector
  • Franklin
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Continue List   (18 more) ...
    • Pine Level
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
    • Snowdoun
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
      • Snowdoun is located in Montgomery County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Snowdoun
    • Tharin
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
      • Tharin is located in Montgomery County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tharin

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

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 websites either 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 Cecil:

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 Cecil, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.