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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 Leon (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 Leon. 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.

Leon is located in Crenshaw 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 Crenshaw County: Butler, Coffee, Covington, Lowndes, Montgomery & Pike.

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

  • Crenshaw County     (The home county of Leon)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Leon, with the one closest to Leon listed first.
    • Merrill Mill
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
    • Dozier
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • Brantley
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
    • Peacock ‑ Historic
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
      • Peacock is located in Crenshaw County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Peacock
    • Bullock
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
    • Cherokee Village
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
      • Cherokee Village is located in Crenshaw County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cherokee Village
    • Rutledge
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
    • Luverne
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Vernledge
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
    • Glenwood
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Social Town
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Social Town is located in Crenshaw County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Social Town
    • Vidette
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Butler County
  • Coffee County
  • Conecuh County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Leon, with the one closest to Leon listed first.
    • Mount Union
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Paul
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Old Town
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
      • Old Town is located in Conecuh County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Old Town
    • Wilcox
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
    • Brooklyn
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Brooklyn is located in Conecuh County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brooklyn
    • Centerville
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
      • Centerville is located in Conecuh County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Centerville
    • Rabb
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
  • Covington County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Leon, with the one closest to Leon listed first.
    • Rose Hill
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Antioch
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
    • Gantt
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Gantt is located in Covington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gantt
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 214 people
    • Heath
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
      • Heath is located in Covington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Heath
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 252 people
    • Red Level
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
    • River Falls
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Sanford
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
      • Sanford is located in Covington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sanford
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 259 people
    • Andalusia
      (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
    • Babbie
      (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
      • Babbie is located in Covington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Babbie
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 599 people
    • Opp
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Horn Hill
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
      • Horn Hill is located in Covington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Horn Hill
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 227 people
    • County Line
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
      • County Line is located in Covington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for County Line
  • Montgomery County
    • Lapine
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
      • Lapine is located in Montgomery County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lapine
  • Pike County

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

Cemeteries Near Leon ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Leon.

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

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Leon, with the one closest to Leon 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 Leon had a population of 78 people in 1895 with a post office and no railroad service.

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

  • Dozier
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
  • Rose Hill
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
  • Brantley
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
  • Pigeon Creek
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Pigeon Creek is located in Butler County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pigeon Creek
  • Oaky Streak
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
  • Peacock ‑ Historic
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
    • Peacock is located in Crenshaw County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Peacock
  • Vera Cruz ‑ Historic
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
    • Vera Cruz is located in Covington County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Vera Cruz
  • Bullock
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
  • Rutledge
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
  • Luverne
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
  • Industry
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
  • Shell
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
    • Shell is located in Butler County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shell
  • Continue List   (16 more) ...
    • Red Level
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
    • River Falls
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Glasgow
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Glasgow is located in Butler County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Glasgow

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

Newspapers Published in Leon ...

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 61 newspapers that have been published in the area around Leon.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Leon, there are papers which were published within 23 miles [37 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Leon.

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 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 Leon:

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 Leon, 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- Leon) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.