RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Florida >> Taylor County >> Scanlon >> Genealogy HelperIndex...

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 Scanlon (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 Scanlon. 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.

Scanlon is located in Taylor 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 Taylor County: Dixie, Jefferson, Lafayette & Madison.

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

  • Taylor County     (The home county of Scanlon)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Scanlon, with the one closest to Scanlon listed first.
    • Perry
      (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
    • Shady Grove
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
  • Jefferson County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Scanlon, with the one closest to Scanlon listed first.
    • Thomas City
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
      • Thomas City is located in Jefferson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Thomas City
    • Wacissa
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
    • Lamont
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
    • Waukeenah
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
    • Aucilla
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
      • Aucilla is located in Jefferson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Aucilla
    • Lloyd
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
    • Monticello
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
  • Leon County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Scanlon, with the one closest to Scanlon listed first.
    • Capitola
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
      • Capitola is located in Leon County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Capitola
    • Woodville
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
  • Madison County
    • Greenville
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Wakulla County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Scanlon, with the one closest to Scanlon listed first.
    • Saint Marks
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
    • Wakulla Springs
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
    • Crawfordville
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
    • Panacea
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)

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

Cemeteries Near Scanlon ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Scanlon.

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

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

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

  • Rocky Ford Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
  • Poorspot Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
  • Cooksey / Hornesby Family Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Pisgah Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
  • Campbell Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Henderson Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
  • Walker Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
  • Boyd - New Life UMC Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
  • Fellowship Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
  • Walker Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
  • Anderson Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
  • Magnolia Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
  • Continue List   (73 more) ...
    • Broomsage Cemetery
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
    • Wilcox Cemetery
      (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
    • Wilson Cemetery
      (18 miles [29 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.<3>

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

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

  • Waylonzo
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Waylonzo is located in Taylor County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Waylonzo
  • Iddo
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Iddo is located in Taylor County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Iddo
  • Wacissa
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
  • Lamont
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
  • Newport
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
    • Newport is located in Wakulla County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Newport
  • Perry
    (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
  • Saint Marks
    (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
  • Waukeenah
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
  • Wakulla
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
    • Wakulla is located in Wakulla County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wakulla
  • Chaires
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Chaires is located in Leon County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chaires
  • Woodville
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
  • Lloyd
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
  • Continue List   (4 more) ...
    • Aucilla
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
      • Aucilla is located in Jefferson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Aucilla
    • Greenville
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Monticello
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)

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

Newspapers Published in Scanlon ...

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 16 newspapers that have been published in the area around Scanlon.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Scanlon, there are papers which were published within 28 miles [45.1 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Scanlon.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we begin 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 Scanlon:

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