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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 Manns Spur (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 Manns Spur. 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.

Name Variations for Manns Spur ...

When searching records, keep in mind that names and their spelling can change over time. Our sources include documents like maps, railroad schedules, Travel, Express and Shipping Guides. Many of these documents date from the 1800's and it's common to find spelling differences.

While the name of this community is Manns Spur, be aware that it's the common practice of mapmakers to remove the apostrophe from possessive names<1>. So Manns Spur may originally have been Mann's Spur.

Sometimes the trailing 's' might be dropped altogether, in which case Manns Spur might be written as Mann Spur.

If you have information about these names (such as the reason for the change, date of change, the origin of the name), please Contact Us.

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.

Manns Spur is located in Baker 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 Baker County: Bradford, Clay, Columbia, Duval, Nassau, Union, Charlton (GA), Clinch (GA) & Ware (GA).

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

  • Baker County     (The home county of Manns Spur)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Manns Spur, with the one closest to Manns Spur listed first.
    • Sanderson
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Olustee
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Glen Saint Mary
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
    • MacClenny
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
    • Taylor
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
      • Taylor is located in Baker County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Taylor
  • Alachua County
    • La Crosse
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
  • Bradford County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Manns Spur, with the one closest to Manns Spur listed first.
    • Lawtey
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Brooker
      (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
    • Starke
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
    • Graham
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
    • Hampton
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Clay County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Manns Spur, with the one closest to Manns Spur listed first.
    • Kingsley Lake
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Kingsley Lake is located in Clay County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kingsley Lake
    • Kingsley Village
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Kingsley Village is located in Clay County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kingsley Village
    • Kingsley
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
      • Kingsley is located in Clay County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kingsley
    • Middleburg
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
  • Columbia County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Manns Spur, with the one closest to Manns Spur listed first.
    • Lulu
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
    • McColskey
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
      • McColskey is located in Columbia County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for McColskey
    • Watertown
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
      • Watertown is located in Columbia County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Watertown
    • Five Points
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
      • Five Points is located in Columbia County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Five Points
    • Lake City
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
  • Duval County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Manns Spur, with the one closest to Manns Spur listed first.
    • Maxville
      (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
      • Maxville is located in Duval County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Maxville
    • Baldwin
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
  • Hamilton County
    • White Springs
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
  • Nassau County
  • Suwannee County
  • Union County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Manns Spur, with the one closest to Manns Spur listed first.
    • Raiford
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Lake Butler
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
    • Worthington Springs
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
  • Charlton County (GA)

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

Cemeteries Near Manns Spur ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Manns Spur.

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 Manns Spur - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • Sanderson Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
  • Monument Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
  • South Prong Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
  • Cedar Creek Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
  • Dyess Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
  • Turner Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
  • Mantown Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
  • Woodlawn Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
  • Macedonia Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Macedonia Cemetery
    • The Macedonia Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Macedonia Independent Methodist Church Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #187891 <3>
  • Gillen Allen Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Lulu Baptist Church Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Douglas Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Continue List   (103 more) ...
    • Varnes Cemetery
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
    • Sapp Cemetery
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Kerce Cemetery
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)

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.<4>

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

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

  • Sanderson
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
  • Olustee
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
  • Glen Saint Mary
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
  • Mount Carrie
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
    • Mount Carrie is located in Columbia County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mount Carrie
  • MacClenny
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
  • Lulu
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Lake Butler
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
  • Watertown
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
    • Watertown is located in Columbia County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Watertown
  • Highland
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
    • Highland is located in Clay County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Highland
  • Maxville
    (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
    • Maxville is located in Duval County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Maxville
  • New River
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
    • New River is located in Bradford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for New River
  • Lawtey
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
  • Continue List   (13 more) ...
    • Lake City
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
    • Baldwin
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
    • Winfield
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
      • Winfield is located in Columbia County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Winfield

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

Newspapers Published in Manns Spur ...

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 35 newspapers that have been published in the area around Manns Spur.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Manns Spur, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<5>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Manns Spur.

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 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 Manns Spur:

Footnotes ...

<1>It's generally believed that possessive apostrophes are removed to prevent confusion on maps where the apostrophe may be confused with a cartographic symbol. While this is generally true, it's not uncommon to find possessive apostrophes in administrative names (such as towns or counties).
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<3>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.
<4>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 Manns Spur, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<5>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Manns Spur) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.