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

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 McDowell (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 McDowell. 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 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 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.

McDowell is located in Sumter 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 Sumter County: Choctaw, Greene, Marengo, Pickens, Kemper (MS), Lauderdale (MS) & Noxubee (MS).

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

  • Sumter County     (The home county of McDowell)
  • Choctaw County
    • The following are listed by their distance from McDowell, with the one closest to McDowell listed first.
    • Cedahoma ‑ Historic
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
      • Cedahoma is located in Choctaw County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cedahoma
    • Pelham
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
      • Pelham is located in Choctaw County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pelham
    • Tompkinsville
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
    • Pennington
      (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
      • Pennington is located in Choctaw County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pennington
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 202 people
    • Choctaw City
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
      • Choctaw City is located in Choctaw County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Choctaw City
    • Jachin
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
      • Jachin is located in Choctaw County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jachin
    • Lavaca
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
    • Cromwell
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Cromwell is located in Choctaw County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cromwell
  • Greene County
  • Hale County
  • Marengo County
    • The following are listed by their distance from McDowell, with the one closest to McDowell listed first.
    • Aigleville ‑ Historic
      (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
    • Demopolis
      (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
    • Pin Hook
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
    • Griffins ‑ Historic
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
      • Griffins is located in Marengo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Griffins
    • Providence
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Providence is located in Marengo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Providence
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 198 people
    • Beckleys ‑ Historic
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
      • Beckleys is located in Marengo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Beckleys
    • Blue Lock ‑ Historic
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
      • Blue Lock is located in Marengo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Blue Lock
    • Linden
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Tombigbee ‑ Historic
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Tombigbee is located in Marengo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tombigbee
    • Myrtlewood
      (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
      • Myrtlewood is located in Marengo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Myrtlewood
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 115 people
    • Faunsdale
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
    • Siddonsville
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Dayton
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
  • Perry County

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

Cemeteries Near McDowell ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of McDowell.

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

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from McDowell, with the one closest to McDowell 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, McDowell had a post office and railroad service.

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

  • Belmont
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Belmont is located in Sumter County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Belmont
  • Demopolis
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
  • Forkland
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
  • Coatopa
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
  • Jefferson
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
    • Jefferson is located in Marengo County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jefferson
  • Arcola
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
  • Tishabee
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Tishabee is located in Greene County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tishabee
  • Old Spring Hill
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Old Spring Hill is located in Marengo County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Old Spring Hill
  • Gallion
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
  • Cedarville
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Cedarville is located in Hale County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cedarville
  • Miller
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
  • Linden
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Continue List   (14 more) ...
    • Tombigbee ‑ Historic
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Tombigbee is located in Marengo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tombigbee
    • Livingston
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
    • Boligee
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)

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

Newspapers Published in McDowell ...

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 78 newspapers that have been published in the area around McDowell.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of McDowell, there are papers which were published within 24 miles [38.6 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for McDowell.

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 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 McDowell:

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 McDowell, 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 obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- McDowell) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.