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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 Ryland (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 Ryland. 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 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 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.

Ryland is located in Madison 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 Madison County: Jackson, Limestone, Marshall, Morgan, Franklin (TN) & Lincoln (TN).

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

  • Madison County     (The home county of Ryland)
  • Colbert County
    • Garner ‑ Historic
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
      • Garner is located in Colbert County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Garner
  • Jackson County
  • Limestone County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Ryland, with the one closest to Ryland listed first.
    • Capshaw
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
      • Capshaw is located in Limestone County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Capshaw
    • Center Hill
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
    • Wooley Springs ‑ Historic
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Swancott
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Swancott is located in Limestone County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Swancott
    • Caro
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Westlake
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Fairmount
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
    • Belle Mina
      (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
      • Belle Mina is located in Limestone County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Belle Mina
    • Mooresville
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Country Village
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
      • Country Village is located in Limestone County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Country Village
    • Ardmore
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Estaville ‑ Historic
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Estaville is located in Limestone County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Estaville
  • Marshall County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Ryland, with the one closest to Ryland listed first.
    • Grant
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Ferns Quarter ‑ Historic
      (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
      • Ferns Quarter is located in Marshall County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ferns Quarter
    • Fort Deposit ‑ Historic
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
      • Fort Deposit is located in Marshall County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fort Deposit
    • Union Grove
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
    • Columbus City
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Columbus City is located in Marshall County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Columbus City
    • Columbus City Ferry
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
      • Columbus City Ferry is located in Marshall County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Columbus City Ferry
    • Friendship
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
    • North ‑ Historic
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
      • North is located in Marshall County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North
    • Grassy
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
    • Ruth
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
    • Scant City
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
      • Scant City is located in Marshall County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Scant City
    • Mid ‑ Historic
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Mid is located in Marshall County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mid
  • Morgan County
  • Franklin County (TN)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Ryland, with the one closest to Ryland listed first.
    • Huntland
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Beans Creek
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Lexie
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
    • Garner Ford
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
      • Garner Ford is located in Franklin County (TN)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Garner Ford
      • Estimated population in 2014: 309 people
  • Giles County (TN)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Ryland, with the one closest to Ryland listed first.
    • Ardmore
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Ardmore is located in Giles County (TN)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ardmore
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,218 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Ardmore <1>
    • Elkmont Springs
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Dickson Town
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Dickson Town is located in Giles County (TN)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dickson Town
    • Elkton
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Wheelerton
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Lincoln County (TN)

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

Cemeteries Near Ryland ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Ryland.

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

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

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

  • Kelly Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
  • Ryland Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
  • Jordan Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
  • Russell J Kelly Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
  • Steger - Ormond Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
  • Acklin - Derrick Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
  • Hewlett Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
  • Jehu Lawler Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
  • Tally Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
  • Scruggs Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
  • King Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
  • Crowson Hill Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
  • Continue List   (1050 more) ...

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>

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

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

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

Newspapers Published in Ryland ...

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 82 newspapers that have been published in the area around Ryland.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Ryland, there are papers which were published within 7 miles [11.3 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Ryland.

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 Ryland:

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 Ryland, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<3>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Ryland) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.