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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 Lewiston (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 Lewiston. 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 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.

Lewiston is located in Greene 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 Greene County: Hale, Marengo, Pickens, Sumter & Tuscaloosa.

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

  • Greene County     (The home county of Lewiston)
  • Hale County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Lewiston, with the one closest to Lewiston listed first.
    • Oak Village
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
      • Oak Village is located in Hale County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oak Village
    • Akron
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Powers
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
    • Moundville
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
    • Sawyerville
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Phipps ‑ Historic
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
  • Pickens County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Lewiston, with the one closest to Lewiston listed first.
    • Benevola
      (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Olney
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Aliceville
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
    • McMullen
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
      • McMullen is located in Pickens County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for McMullen
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 9 people
    • Garden
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Beaver Town
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Beaver Town is located in Pickens County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Beaver Town
    • Carrollton
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
    • Memphis
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
      • Memphis is located in Pickens County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Memphis
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 26 people
    • Stansel
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
    • Pickensville
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Bell
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
    • Gordo
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
      • Gordo is located in Pickens County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gordo
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,594 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Gordo <1>
  • Sumter County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Lewiston, with the one closest to Lewiston listed first.
    • Panola
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Gainesville
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Geiger
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Epes
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
      • Epes is located in Sumter County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Epes
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 326 people
    • Bethel ‑ Historic
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Bethel is located in Sumter County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bethel
    • Sumterville
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Emelle
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Sledge ‑ Historic
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
  • Tuscaloosa County
  • Kemper County (MS)
  • Noxubee County (MS)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Lewiston, with the one closest to Lewiston listed first.
    • Cooksville
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
    • Ravine
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
    • Harlan ‑ Historic
      (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
      • Harlan is located in Noxubee County (MS)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harlan
    • Deerbrook
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)

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

Cemeteries Near Lewiston ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Lewiston.

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

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

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

  • Screptah Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
  • Ellis Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
  • Henderson Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
  • Eatman Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
  • Hughes Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Sixteenth Section Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
  • Shedd Hill Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
  • Shea Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
  • Horton Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Horton Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Pleasant Ridge Church Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Eatman Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
  • Continue List   (442 more) ...
    • Pleasant Hill Cemetery
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Brickyard Cemetery
      (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Hebron Cemetery
      (5 miles [8 km] to the east)

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.<2>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that in 1895, Lewiston had a post office and no railroad service.

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

  • Pleasant Ridge
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Pleasant Ridge is located in Greene County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pleasant Ridge
  • Mantua
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
  • Benevola
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
  • Olney
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
  • Union
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Union is located in Greene County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Union
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 207 people
  • West Greene
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Clinton
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
  • Pleasant Grove
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Pleasant Grove is located in Pickens County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pleasant Grove
  • Bridgeville
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Bridgeville is located in Pickens County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bridgeville
  • Vienna
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
    • Vienna is located in Pickens County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Vienna
  • Dillburg
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Dillburg is located in Pickens County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dillburg
  • Warsaw
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Warsaw is located in Sumter County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Warsaw
  • Continue List   (14 more) ...
    • Mount Hebron
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
      • Mount Hebron is located in Greene County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mount Hebron
    • Garden
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Knoxville
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
      • Knoxville is located in Greene County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Knoxville

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

Newspapers Published in Lewiston ...

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 51 newspapers that have been published in the area around Lewiston.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Lewiston, there are papers which were published within 24 miles [38.6 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Lewiston.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we like to 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 Lewiston:

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>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 Lewiston, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<3>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- Lewiston) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.