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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 Alston (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 Alston. 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 hospitals and doctors 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.

Alston is located in Montgomery County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Montgomery County: Jeff Davis, Toombs, Treutlen & Wheeler.

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

  • Montgomery County     (The home county of Alston)
  • Appling County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Alston, with the one closest to Alston listed first.
    • Graham
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
      • Graham is located in Appling County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Graham
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 289 people
    • Baxley
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
    • Phillipi
      (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
      • Phillipi is located in Appling County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Phillipi
      • Population from the 2010 Census: 707 people
    • Surrency
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Candler County
    • Canoe
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
      • Canoe is located in Candler County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Canoe
      • Estimated population in 2019: 785 people
  • Emanuel County
  • Evans County
  • Jeff Davis County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Alston, with the one closest to Alston listed first.
    • Tallahassee
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Tallahassee is located in Jeff Davis County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tallahassee
      • Estimated population in 2019: 3,185 people
    • Hazlehurst
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Lumber City Ferry
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Lumber City Ferry is located in Jeff Davis County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lumber City Ferry
      • Estimated population in 2019: 1,257 people
    • Quinn ‑ Historic
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
      • Quinn is located in Jeff Davis County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Quinn
      • Estimated population in 2019: 3,652 people
    • Kirkland
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Denton
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Laurens County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Alston, with the one closest to Alston listed first.
    • Cedar Grove
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Rockledge
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
  • Tattnall County
  • Telfair County
  • Toombs County
  • Treutlen County
  • Wheeler County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Alston, with the one closest to Alston listed first.
    • Ochwalkee
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Ochwalkee is located in Wheeler County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ochwalkee
      • Estimated population in 2019: 3,732 people
    • Glenwood
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Alamo
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)

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

Cemeteries Near Alston ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Alston.

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

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

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

  • Sharpe Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
  • Galbreath Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
  • Old Salem Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Sharpe Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
  • Sharpe Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
  • Walker Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
  • Walker Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
  • Uvalda Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Gibbs Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
  • Hughes Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Peterson Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Long Pond Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
  • Continue List   (336 more) ...
    • Conner Cemetery
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Morris Cemetery
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Mathias Cemetery
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)

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 Alston in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Alston.

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

  • McGregor
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
    • McGregor is located in Montgomery County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for McGregor
  • Higgston
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
    • Higgston is located in Montgomery County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Higgston
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 305 people
  • Ailey
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Mount Vernon
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
  • English Eddy
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
    • English Eddy is located in Toombs County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for English Eddy
  • Vidalia
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
  • Kibbee
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
    • Kibbee is located in Montgomery County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kibbee
  • Lumber City
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
  • Towns
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
    • Towns is located in Telfair County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Towns
  • Johnsonville ‑ Historic
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
    • Johnsonville is located in Appling County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Johnsonville
  • Graham
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
    • Graham is located in Appling County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Graham
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 289 people
  • Altamaha
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Altamaha is located in Tattnall County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Altamaha
    • Former name for Altamaha:
    • Atamaha
  • Continue List   (13 more) ...
    • Pine Grove
      (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
      • Pine Grove is located in Appling County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pine Grove
    • Prentiss
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
      • Prentiss is located in Appling County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Prentiss
    • Scotland
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)

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

Newspapers Published in Alston ...

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 28 newspapers that have been published in the area around Alston.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Alston, there are papers which were published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<2>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Alston.

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 Alston:

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