RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Alabama >> Madison County >> Chase >> 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 Chase (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 Chase. 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 doctors 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.

Chase is located in Madison 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 Madison County: Jackson, Limestone, Marshall, Morgan, Franklin (TN) & Lincoln (TN).

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

  • Madison County     (The home county of Chase)
  • Colbert County
    • Garner ‑ Historic
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
      • Garner is located in Colbert County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Garner
  • Jackson County
  • Limestone County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Chase, with the one closest to Chase listed first.
    • Capshaw
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
      • Capshaw is located in Limestone County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Capshaw
    • Center Hill
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
    • Wooley Springs ‑ Historic
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Caro
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
    • Swancott
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
      • Swancott is located in Limestone County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Swancott
    • Fairmount
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
    • Belle Mina
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
      • Belle Mina is located in Limestone County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Belle Mina
    • Westlake
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Ardmore
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Mooresville
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Country Village
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
      • Country Village is located in Limestone County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Country Village
    • Estaville ‑ Historic
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
      • Estaville is located in Limestone County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Estaville
    • Athens
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
  • Marshall County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Chase, with the one closest to Chase listed first.
    • Grant
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Ferns Quarter ‑ Historic
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
      • Ferns Quarter is located in Marshall County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ferns Quarter
    • Union Grove
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
    • Fort Deposit ‑ Historic
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Fort Deposit is located in Marshall County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fort Deposit
    • Friendship
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
    • Ruth
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
    • Columbus City
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Columbus City is located in Marshall County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Columbus City
    • Scant City
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
      • Scant City is located in Marshall County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Scant City
    • Columbus City Ferry
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Columbus City Ferry is located in Marshall County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Columbus City Ferry
    • Grassy
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
    • Pine Lake Village
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
      • Pine Lake Village is located in Marshall County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pine Lake Village
    • North ‑ Historic
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
      • North is located in Marshall County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North
  • Morgan County
  • Franklin County (TN)
  • Giles County (TN)
  • Lincoln County (TN)

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

Cemeteries Near Chase ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Chase.

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

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

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

  • Powell Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
  • Valhalla Memory Gardens
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
  • Tiller Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
  • Penny Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
  • Normal Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
  • Rowe Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
  • Scruggs Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
  • Antioch Primitive Baptist Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
  • Strong Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
  • Strong Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
  • Ford Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
  • Humphrey Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
  • Continue List   (1093 more) ...
    • Battle Cemetery
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Jude Cemetery
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
    • Union Hill Cemetery
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)

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

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

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

Newspapers Published in Chase ...

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 82 newspapers that have been published in the area around Chase.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Chase, there are papers which were published within 5 miles [8 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Chase.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first turn to the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These professional and volunteer 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 Chase:

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