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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 Prestwick (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 Prestwick. 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 northeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors and 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.

Prestwick is located in Washington 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 Washington County: Baldwin, Choctaw, Clarke, Mobile, Greene (MS) & Wayne (MS).

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

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

Cemeteries Near Prestwick ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Prestwick.

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 Prestwick covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

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

  • Pine Grove Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Pine Grove Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Pine Grove Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Leroy Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Leroy Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Leroy Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Cortelyou Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Cortelyou Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Cortelyou Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Lewis Grove Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Wagarville Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Wagarville Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Wagarville Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Ebenezer Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Ebenezer Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Ebenezer Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Brown Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Brown Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Brown Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • St. Union - Mt. Stoney Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Union - Mt. Stoney Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Union - Mt. Stoney Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Clearwater Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Clearwater Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Clearwater Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Mt. Shady Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Mt. Shady Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Mt. Shady Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Pine Crest Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Pine Crest Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Pine Crest Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • McKenzie Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the McKenzie Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the McKenzie Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Continue List   (224 more) ...
    • Williams Family Cemetery
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Sunflower Cemetery
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Sunflower Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Sunflower Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Forman Cemetery
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Forman Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Forman 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>

While we didn't find Prestwick in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Prestwick.

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

  • Wagar
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
    • 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
  • Carson
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
    • 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 Prestwick to Carson
  • Sunflower
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
  • Jackson
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Saint Stephen's
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Walker Springs
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Salitpa
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
  • Alma
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
    • 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
  • McIntosh
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for McIntosh have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for McIntosh
    • McIntosh is located in Washington County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 210 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for McIntosh <3>
  • Winn
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Winn. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<1>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Winn
    • Winn is located in Clarke County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Winn
    • From Prestwick to Winn
  • Gainestown
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Gainestown. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<1>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gainestown
    • Gainestown is located in Clarke County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Gainestown
    • From Prestwick to Gainestown
  • Bigbee
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
  • 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 Prestwick. See our List of 1890's Communities around Prestwick.

Newspapers Published in Prestwick ...

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 17 newspapers that have been published in the area around Prestwick.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Prestwick, there are papers which were published within 27 miles [43.5 km]<5>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Prestwick.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first visit 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 Prestwick:

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

The official website for Washington County: www.washingtoncountyalgov.com

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>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.
<5>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 drawn from Point A (ie- Prestwick) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Prestwick. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 31.4537, Longitude: -87.9666       In this case, the coordinates for Prestwick have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<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 Prestwick, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 28 Apr 2025