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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 Compton (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 Compton. 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 and hospitals 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.

Compton is located in Blount 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 Blount County: Cullman, Etowah, Jefferson, Marshall, Saint Clair, Walker & Winston.

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

  • Blount County     (The home county of Compton)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Compton, with the one closest to Compton listed first.
    • Remlap
      (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Dallas
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
      • Dallas is located in Blount County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dallas
    • Selfville
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
      • Selfville is located in Blount County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Selfville
    • Adville
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Locust Fork
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • County Line
      (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Little Warrior
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Deavers
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
      • Deavers is located in Blount County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Deavers
    • Allgood
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
      • Allgood is located in Blount County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Allgood
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 638 people
    • Hayden
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Nectar
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
      • Nectar is located in Blount County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nectar
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 344 people
    • Warrior
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
  • Cullman County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Compton, with the one closest to Compton listed first.
    • Garden City
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Baltimore ‑ Historic
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Baltimore is located in Cullman County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Baltimore
    • Black Bottom
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Colony
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Damascus
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
    • The Colony
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
      • The Colony is located in Cullman County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for The Colony
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 291 people
    • Hanceville
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
    • White City
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
      • White City is located in Cullman County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for White City
    • Arkadelphia
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
    • Dodge City
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Dodge City is located in Cullman County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dodge City
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 621 people
    • Bremen
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
    • Baileytown
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
  • Etowah County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Compton, with the one closest to Compton listed first.
    • Altoona
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Nix ‑ Historic
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
      • Nix is located in Etowah County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nix
    • Clear Springs ‑ Historic
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
      • Clear Springs is located in Etowah County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clear Springs
    • Gallant
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Walnut Grove
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Howelton
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Jefferson County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Compton, with the one closest to Compton listed first.
    • Masseyline
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Masseyline is located in Jefferson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Masseyline
    • Village Springs
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
      • Village Springs is located in Jefferson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Village Springs
    • Palmerdale
      (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Ayres
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Bradford
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Trafford
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Clay
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
    • Crosston
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
      • Crosston is located in Jefferson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crosston
    • Majestic
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
      • Majestic is located in Jefferson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Majestic
    • Pinson
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
    • Kimberly
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
    • Chalkville
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
  • Marshall County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Compton, with the one closest to Compton listed first.
    • Reedbrake ‑ Historic
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Reedbrake is located in Marshall County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Reedbrake
    • Big Spring ‑ Historic
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
      • Big Spring is located in Marshall County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Big Spring
    • Douglas
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
      • Douglas is located in Marshall County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Douglas
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 780 people
  • Saint Clair County
  • Shelby County
  • Talladega County
    • Colony
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Colony is located in Talladega County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Colony
  • Walker County

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

Cemeteries Near Compton ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Compton.

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

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Compton, with the one closest to Compton 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>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that in 1895, Compton had a post office and railroad service.

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

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

Newspapers Published in Compton ...

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 Compton.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Compton, there are papers which were published within 13 miles [20.9 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Compton.

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 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 Compton:

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 Compton, 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 drawn from Point A (ie- Compton) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.