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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 Chelsea (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 Chelsea. 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 northwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors and hospitals were in the next county to the west. 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 west 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.

Chelsea is located in Shelby 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 Shelby County: Bibb, Chilton, Coosa, Jefferson, Saint Clair & Talladega.

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

  • Shelby County     (The home county of Chelsea)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Chelsea, with the one closest to Chelsea listed first.
    • Meadowbrook
      (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
      • Meadowbrook is located in Shelby County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Meadowbrook
    • Westover
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
      • Westover is located in Shelby County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Westover
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,769 people
    • Shoal Creek
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Inverness
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Inverness is located in Shelby County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Inverness
    • Lake Purdy
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Lake Purdy is located in Shelby County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lake Purdy
    • Indian Springs Village
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
      • Indian Springs Village is located in Shelby County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Indian Springs Village
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,628 people
    • Bridgeton
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
      • Bridgeton is located in Shelby County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bridgeton
    • Pelham
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Harpersville
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
    • Dunavant
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Sterrett
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Columbiana
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
  • Bibb County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Chelsea, with the one closest to Chelsea listed first.
    • Eddings
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
      • Eddings is located in Bibb County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eddings
    • Brierfield
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Cane Creek ‑ Historic
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Cane Creek is located in Bibb County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cane Creek
    • Ashby
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Seymour
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
      • Seymour is located in Bibb County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Seymour
    • Oakley
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Belle Ellen
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Nash Town ‑ Historic
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Nash Town is located in Bibb County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nash Town
    • Green Pond
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
    • Woodstock
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
  • Blount County
    • Dale ‑ Historic
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
      • Dale is located in Blount County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dale
  • Chilton County
  • Coosa County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Chelsea, with the one closest to Chelsea listed first.
    • Aucheucaula ‑ Historic
      (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
      • Aucheucaula is located in Coosa County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Aucheucaula
    • Stewartville
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Weogufka
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Jefferson County
  • Saint Clair County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Chelsea, with the one closest to Chelsea listed first.
    • Vincent
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
      • Vincent is located in Saint Clair County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Vincent
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,223 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Vincent <1>
    • Woodland Village
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
      • Woodland Village is located in Saint Clair County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Woodland Village
    • Moody
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
    • Brompton
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Acmar
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
    • Parsons
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
    • Cook's Springs
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
      • Cook's Springs is located in Saint Clair County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cook's Springs
    • Fountainrun ‑ Historic
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
      • Fountainrun is located in Saint Clair County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fountainrun
    • Easonville ‑ Historic
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
    • Margaret
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
    • Turnbough Town
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
      • Turnbough Town is located in Saint Clair County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Turnbough Town
    • Argo
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
      • Argo is located in Saint Clair County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Argo
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 4,278 people
  • Talladega County
  • Tuscaloosa County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Chelsea, with the one closest to Chelsea listed first.
    • Tannehill
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
      • Tannehill is located in Tuscaloosa County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tannehill
    • Lake View
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
      • Lake View is located in Tuscaloosa County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lake View
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,732 people

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

Cemeteries Near Chelsea ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Chelsea.

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

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Chelsea, with the one closest to Chelsea 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.<3>

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

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

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

Newspapers Published in Chelsea ...

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 15 newspapers that have been published in the area around Chelsea.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Chelsea, there are papers which were published within 11 miles [17.7 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Chelsea.

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 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 Chelsea:

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