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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 Fort Payne (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 Fort Payne. 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.

Name Variations for Fort Payne ...

When searching records, keep in mind that names and their spelling can change over time. Our sources include documents like maps, railroad schedules, Travel, Express and Shipping Guides. Many of these documents date from the 1800's and it's common to find spelling differences.

Although we can't give a definitive list, hopefully the following will give you a feel for the variations that might occur.

For example, a typical abbreviation for Fort Payne: Ft. Payne

If you have information about these names (such as the reason for the change, date of change, the origin of the name), please Contact Us.

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 hospitals 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.

Fort Payne is located in DeKalb County and is the County Seat.

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 DeKalb County: Cherokee, Etowah, Jackson, Marshall, Chattooga (GA), Dade (GA) & Walker (GA).

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

  • DeKalb County     (The home county of Fort Payne)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Fort Payne, with the one closest to Fort Payne listed first.
    • Douglas
      (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
      • Douglas is located in DeKalb County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Douglas
    • Pine Ridge
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
      • Pine Ridge is located in DeKalb County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pine Ridge
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 273 people
    • Adamsburg
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Bootsville
      (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Chavies
      (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Dog Town
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
      • Dog Town is located in DeKalb County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dog Town
    • Luna ‑ Historic
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
      • Luna is located in DeKalb County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Luna
    • Alpine
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
      • Alpine is located in DeKalb County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Alpine
    • Cordell ‑ Historic
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
      • Cordell is located in DeKalb County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cordell
    • Rainsville
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Lickskillet
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Sigsbee
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
      • Sigsbee is located in DeKalb County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sigsbee
  • Cherokee County
  • Etowah County
  • Jackson County
  • Marshall County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Fort Payne, with the one closest to Fort Payne listed first.
    • Peters ‑ Historic
      (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
      • Peters is located in Marshall County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Peters
    • Mid ‑ Historic
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
      • Mid is located in Marshall County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mid
    • Hustleville
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
    • Columbus City Ferry
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
      • Columbus City Ferry is located in Marshall County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Columbus City Ferry
    • Boaz
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Columbus City
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
      • Columbus City is located in Marshall County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Columbus City
    • Minorville ‑ Historic
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
      • Minorville is located in Marshall County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Minorville
    • Albertville
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Grant
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
  • Chattooga County (GA)
  • Dade County (GA)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Fort Payne, with the one closest to Fort Payne listed first.
    • Rising Fawn
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Stewart Town
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
      • Stewart Town is located in Dade County (GA)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stewart Town
  • Floyd County (GA)
  • Walker County (GA)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Fort Payne, with the one closest to Fort Payne listed first.
    • Bronco
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
      • Bronco is located in Walker County (GA)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bronco
      • Estimated population in 2019: 367 people
    • Martindale
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
      • Martindale is located in Walker County (GA)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Martindale
      • Population from the 2010 Census: 35,795 people
    • Cassandra
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Kensington
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
    • LaFayette
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Linwood
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
      • Linwood is located in Walker County (GA)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Linwood

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

Cemeteries Near Fort Payne ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Fort Payne.

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 Fort Payne - one of the links might be able to help.

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Fort Payne, with the one closest to Fort Payne 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 Fort Payne had a population of 2,698 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Fort Payne had a population of 14,041 people.

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

  • Blake
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Blake is located in DeKalb County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Blake
  • Collbran
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Collbran is located in DeKalb County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Collbran
  • Chavies
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
  • Luna ‑ Historic
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Luna is located in DeKalb County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Luna
  • Lebanon
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Lebanon is located in DeKalb County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lebanon
  • Cordell ‑ Historic
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Cordell is located in DeKalb County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cordell
  • Musgrove ‑ Historic
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Musgrove is located in DeKalb County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Musgrove
  • Lydia
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Lydia is located in DeKalb County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lydia
  • Jamestown
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
    • Jamestown is located in Cherokee County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jamestown
  • Loveless
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
    • Loveless is located in DeKalb County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Loveless
  • Portersville
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Portersville is located in DeKalb County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Portersville
  • Snake Creek ‑ Historic
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
    • Snake Creek is located in DeKalb County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Snake Creek
  • Continue List   (14 more) ...

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Fort Payne ...

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 19 newspapers that have been published in the area around Fort Payne.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Fort Payne. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Fort Payne and those printed in the larger area surrounding Fort Payne.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 14 miles [22.5 km]<4> of Fort Payne.

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 Fort Payne:

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