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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 Philadelphia (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 Philadelphia. 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 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.

Philadelphia is located in Craighead County.

To see how the shape of Arkansas' counties may have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Craighead County: Greene, Jackson, Lawrence, Mississippi, Poinsett & Dunklin (MO).

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

  • Craighead County     (The home county of Philadelphia)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Philadelphia, with the one closest to Philadelphia listed first.
    • Jonesboro
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • Bono
      (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
      • Bono is located in Craighead County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bono
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,595 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Bono <1>
    • Brookland
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
    • Bay
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Cash
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
      • Cash is located in Craighead County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cash
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 359 people
    • Obear ‑ Historic
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
      • Obear is located in Craighead County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Obear
    • Egypt
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
      • Egypt is located in Craighead County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Egypt
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 111 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Egypt <1>
    • Lake City
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
    • Lake View
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
      • Lake View is located in Craighead County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lake View
    • Black Oak
      (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
      • Black Oak is located in Craighead County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Black Oak
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 259 people
    • Monette
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
    • Red Onion
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
    • Caraway
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
  • Clay County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Philadelphia, with the one closest to Philadelphia listed first.
    • Peach Orchard
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
    • Knobel
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
      • Knobel is located in Clay County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Knobel
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 257 people
  • Cross County
    • Bay Village
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
      • Bay Village is located in Cross County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bay Village
  • Greene County
  • Jackson County
  • Lawrence County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Philadelphia, with the one closest to Philadelphia listed first.
    • Sedgwick
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Hoxie
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Walnut Ridge
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Minturn
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
      • Minturn is located in Lawrence County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Minturn
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 104 people
    • College City
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
      • College City is located in Lawrence County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for College City
      • Estimated population in 2016: 506 people
    • Alicia
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
    • Portia
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Black Rock
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Powhatan
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Mississippi County
  • Poinsett County
  • Randolph County
  • Dunklin County (MO)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Philadelphia, with the one closest to Philadelphia listed first.
    • Red Onion
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Cockrum
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Cardwell
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Arkmo
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
    • Arbyrd
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Arbyrd is located in Dunklin County (MO)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Arbyrd
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 458 people
    • Rington
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)

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

Cemeteries Near Philadelphia ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Philadelphia.

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

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Philadelphia, with the one closest to Philadelphia 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>

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

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

  • Jonesboro
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
  • Nettleton
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Nettleton is located in Craighead County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nettleton
  • Bono
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Bono is located in Craighead County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bono
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,595 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Bono <1>
  • Brookland
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
  • Lorado
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • Lorado is located in Greene County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lorado
  • Ridge
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
    • Ridge is located in Craighead County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ridge
  • Finch
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Walcott
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
  • Sedgwick
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Bay
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Bethel
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Bethel is located in Greene County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bethel
  • Cash
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Cash is located in Craighead County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cash
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 359 people
  • Continue List   (14 more) ...
    • Obear ‑ Historic
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
      • Obear is located in Craighead County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Obear
    • Egypt
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
      • Egypt is located in Craighead County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Egypt
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 111 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Egypt <1>
    • Buffalolick ‑ Historic
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
      • Buffalolick is located in Poinsett County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Buffalolick

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

Newspapers Published in Philadelphia ...

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 56 newspapers that have been published in the area around Philadelphia.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Philadelphia, there are papers which were published within 21 miles [33.8 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Philadelphia.

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 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 Philadelphia:

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