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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 Arran (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 Arran. 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 southwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals and doctors were in the next county to the west. 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 west 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.

Arran is located in Wakulla County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Wakulla County: Franklin, Jefferson, Leon & Liberty.

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

  • Wakulla County     (The home county of Arran)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Arran, with the one closest to Arran listed first.
    • Crawfordville
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
    • Wakulla Springs
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Sopchoppy
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Panacea
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
    • Saint Marks
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
    • Curtis Mill
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
      • Curtis Mill is located in Wakulla County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Curtis Mill
  • Franklin County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Arran, with the one closest to Arran listed first.
    • Saint Teresa
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
    • Lanark Village
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
    • Carrabelle
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Gadsden County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Arran, with the one closest to Arran listed first.
    • Midway
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
    • Havana
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
    • Quincy
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
    • Douglas City
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Douglas City is located in Gadsden County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Douglas City
  • Jefferson County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Arran, with the one closest to Arran listed first.
    • Thomas City
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Thomas City is located in Jefferson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Thomas City
    • Wacissa
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Lloyd
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Leon County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Arran, with the one closest to Arran listed first.
    • Woodville
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Tallahassee
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
    • Capitola
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
      • Capitola is located in Leon County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Capitola
    • Bradfordville
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Bradfordville is located in Leon County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bradfordville
  • Liberty County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Arran, with the one closest to Arran listed first.
    • Hosford
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Telogia
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Central City
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
      • Central City is located in Liberty County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Central City

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

Cemeteries Near Arran ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Arran.

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

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

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

  • Arran Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
  • Pelt Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
  • Raker Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
  • Council Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
  • Duggar Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
  • Sutton Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
  • Oak Park Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Smith Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Causseaux Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
  • Grimes Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
  • Richardson Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Walker Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
  • Continue List   (63 more) ...
    • Harvey Cemetery
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Debra Nell Cemetery
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Raher Cemetery
      (8 miles [12.9 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>

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

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

  • Crawfordville
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
  • Sopchoppy
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Wakulla
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
    • Wakulla is located in Wakulla County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wakulla
  • Saint Marks
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
  • Woodville
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
  • Curtis Mill
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Curtis Mill is located in Wakulla County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Curtis Mill
  • Newport
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
    • Newport is located in Wakulla County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Newport
  • Smith Creek
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
    • Smith Creek is located in Wakulla County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Smith Creek
  • Saint Teresa
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
  • Holland
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Holland is located in Leon County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Holland
  • Tallahassee
    (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
  • Bloxham
    (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
    • Bloxham is located in Leon County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bloxham
  • Continue List   (8 more) ...
    • Midway
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
    • Wetumpka
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
      • Wetumpka is located in Gadsden County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wetumpka
    • Chaires
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
      • Chaires is located in Leon County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chaires

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

Newspapers Published in Arran ...

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 Arran.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Arran, there are papers which were published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Arran.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we start with the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These websites either 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 Arran:

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