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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 Colony (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 Colony. 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 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.

Colony is located in Cullman 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 Cullman County: Blount, Lawrence, Marshall, Morgan, Walker & Winston.

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

  • Cullman County     (The home county of Colony)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Colony, with the one closest to Colony listed first.
    • The Colony
      (Less than 2 miles to the north)
      • The Colony is located in Cullman County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for The Colony
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 291 people
    • Baltimore ‑ Historic
      (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
      • Baltimore is located in Cullman County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Baltimore
    • Black Bottom
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
    • Damascus
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Arkadelphia
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Bremen
      (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
    • Dodge City
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
      • Dodge City is located in Cullman County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dodge City
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 621 people
    • Garden City
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Trimble
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
    • Good Hope
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
      • Good Hope is located in Cullman County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Good Hope
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,393 people
    • Hanceville
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Ardell
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
    • White City
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
      • White City is located in Cullman County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for White City
  • Blount County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Colony, with the one closest to Colony listed first.
    • Reid's
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Smoke Rise
      (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
      • Smoke Rise is located in Blount County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Smoke Rise
    • Blount Springs
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Red Hill
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
      • Red Hill is located in Blount County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Red Hill
    • Bangor
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
    • Hayden
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
    • Warrior
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
    • County Line
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Adville
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
    • Locust Fork
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
    • Gum Springs
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Gum Springs is located in Blount County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gum Springs
    • Dallas
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Dallas is located in Blount County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dallas
    • Selfville
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Selfville is located in Blount County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Selfville
  • Jefferson County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Colony, with the one closest to Colony listed first.
    • Corner
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
      • Corner is located in Jefferson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Corner
    • Trafford
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Kimberly
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Morris
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
    • Robbins Crossroads
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
    • Majestic
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Majestic is located in Jefferson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Majestic
    • Sayre
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
      • Sayre is located in Jefferson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sayre
    • Masseyline
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Masseyline is located in Jefferson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Masseyline
    • Bradford
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Crosston
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
      • Crosston is located in Jefferson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crosston
    • Mount Olive
      (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
    • Graysville
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
    • Village Springs
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
      • Village Springs is located in Jefferson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Village Springs
  • Morgan County
  • Saint Clair County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Colony, with the one closest to Colony listed first.
    • Springville
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Argo
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Argo is located in Saint Clair County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Argo
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 4,278 people
    • Turnbough Town
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Turnbough Town is located in Saint Clair County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Turnbough Town
  • Walker County
  • Winston County

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

Cemeteries Near Colony ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Colony.

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

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Colony, with the one closest to Colony 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.<4>

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

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

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

Newspapers Published in Colony ...

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 18 newspapers that have been published in the area around Colony.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Colony, there are papers which were published within 16 miles [25.7 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Colony.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we 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 Colony:

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>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Colony) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<4>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 Colony, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.