RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Alabama >> Clarke County >> Gainestown >> Genealogy HelperIndex...










Learn About
The Commemorative
Quarter for
Alabama

The Commemorative Quarter for Alabama





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 Gainestown (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 Gainestown. 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 southeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals and doctors were in the next county to the east. 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 east 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.

Gainestown is located in Clarke County.

To see how the shape of Alabama's counties have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Clarke County: Baldwin, Choctaw, Marengo, Mobile, Monroe, Washington & Wilcox.

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

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

Cemeteries Near Gainestown ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Gainestown.

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.

If you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our selection of Genealogy Websites (see below).

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

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

  • Franks Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Franks Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Franks Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Road Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Road Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Road Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • New Canaan MB Church Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
  • Mt. Pleasant Methodist Church Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
  • Linder Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Linder Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Linder Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Cedar Fork Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Cedar Fork Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Cedar Fork Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Shomo Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Shomo Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Shomo Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Morning Star Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Morning Star Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Morning Star Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Hotel Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Hotel Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Hotel Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Ferrell Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
  • Weatherford Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Weatherford Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Weatherford Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Mt. Gillard Baptist Church Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Continue List   (210 more) ...
    • Mt. Gilead Cemetery
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Mt. Gilead Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Mt. Gilead Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Coleman Cemetery
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Coleman Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Coleman Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Williams Cemetery
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Williams Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Williams Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.

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.<6>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Gainestown had a population of 85 people in 1895 with a post office and no railroad service.

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

  • Barlow Bend
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
  • Alma
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Alma have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Alma
    • Alma is located in Clarke County
  • Mount Pleasant
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
  • Walker Springs
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
  • Suggsville
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
  • Gosport
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Gosport have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gosport
    • Gosport is located in Clarke County
  • Perdue Hill
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Claiborne
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Claiborne. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<1>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Claiborne
    • Claiborne is located in Monroe County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Claiborne
    • From Gainestown to Claiborne
  • Jackson
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Little River
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
  • Whatley
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
  • Carson
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Carson. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<1>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Carson
    • Carson is located in Washington County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Carson
    • From Gainestown to Carson
  • Continue List   (15 more) ...
    • Blacksher
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
    • Finchburg ‑ Historic
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Finchburg. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<1>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Finchburg
      • Finchburg is located in Monroe County
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Finchburg
      • From Gainestown to Finchburg
    • Wagar
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Wagar have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wagar
      • Wagar is located in Washington County

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

Newspapers Published in Gainestown ...

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 20 newspapers that have been published in the area around Gainestown.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Gainestown, there are papers which were published within 28 miles [45.1 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Gainestown.

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 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 Gainestown:

Unfortunately, we don't know of a website for Gainestown. If you can help, please contact us through our Feedback Page.

The official website for State of Alabama: https://www.alabama.gov/

Footnotes ...

<1>An 'estimated' location is one where we have been given GPS coordinates, but are unable to verify the accuracy of those coordinates. That said, we have some confidence that we have placed the marker near the actual location. A typical reason for being unable to verify a location is that it might be on private property or maybe historic and gone without an obvious trace.
<2>The location has been supplied by the Geographic Names Information System - which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While these values should be definitive, we found that accuracy can vary and you should double-check the location if accuracy is required.
<3>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<4>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Gainestown) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Gainestown. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 31.4456, Longitude: -87.6933       In this case, the coordinates for Gainestown have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>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.
<6>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 Gainestown, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

Copyright 2025
All Rights Reserved

Thank you for visiting our website.

In closing, please keep in mind that we can not guarantee the accuracy or timeliness of the information on this website, so use with care. We encourage you to double-check the information that is critical to you.

If you've found an error or have additional information that you would like to share, please don't hesitate to write: Click here to contact us.

This page was last modified/updated: 28 Apr 2025