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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 Bowman (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 Bowman. 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 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.

Bowman is located in Elbert 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 Elbert County: Hart, Lincoln, Madison, Oglethorpe, Wilkes, Abbeville (SC), Anderson (SC) & McCormick (SC).

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

  • Elbert County     (The home county of Bowman)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Bowman, with the one closest to Bowman listed first.
    • Harper
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
    • Dewy Rose
      (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Centerville
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
    • Goss
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Harmony
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
    • Elberton
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Silk Mills
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Silk Mills is located in Elbert County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Silk Mills
      • Estimated population in 2019: 277 people
    • Edinburg ‑ Historic
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
      • Edinburg is located in Elbert County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Edinburg
      • Estimated population in 2019: 1,396 people
    • Bowman Ferry
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
      • Bowman Ferry is located in Elbert County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bowman Ferry
      • Estimated population in 2019: 808 people
  • Banks County
  • Clarke County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Bowman, with the one closest to Bowman listed first.
    • Winterville
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Cedar Shoals Estates
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
      • Cedar Shoals Estates is located in Clarke County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cedar Shoals Estates
      • Population from the 2010 Census: 74 people
    • Lexington Heights
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
      • Lexington Heights is located in Clarke County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lexington Heights
      • Estimated population in 2019: 228 people
    • Athens
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Jefferson Valley
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Jefferson Valley is located in Clarke County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jefferson Valley
      • Estimated population in 2019: 939 people
    • Chamberlin
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
      • Chamberlin is located in Clarke County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chamberlin
      • Estimated population in 2019: 30,307 people
    • Riverside
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Riverside is located in Clarke County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Riverside
      • Estimated population in 2016: 35 people
    • Pine Lake
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Pine Lake is located in Clarke County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pine Lake
      • Estimated population in 2019: 754 people
  • Franklin County
  • Hart County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Bowman, with the one closest to Bowman listed first.
    • Flat Shoals
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
    • Bowersville
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
    • Hartwell
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Maretts
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
    • Dooleys Ferry
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Dooleys Ferry is located in Hart County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dooleys Ferry
      • Estimated population in 2019: 136 people
    • Reed Creek
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
      • Reed Creek is located in Hart County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Reed Creek
    • Cooleys Ferry
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
      • Cooleys Ferry is located in Hart County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cooleys Ferry
      • Estimated population in 2019: 529 people
    • Crawfords Ferry
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
      • Crawfords Ferry is located in Hart County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crawfords Ferry
      • Estimated population in 2019: 473 people
  • Jackson County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Bowman, with the one closest to Bowman listed first.
    • Nicholson
      (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
    • Commerce
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
    • Attica
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Talasee ‑ Historic
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Talasee is located in Jackson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Talasee
      • Estimated population in 2019: 848 people
    • Arcade
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
      • Arcade is located in Jackson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Arcade
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,040 people
  • Madison County
  • Oconee County
    • Spartan Lane
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Spartan Lane is located in Oconee County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spartan Lane
      • Estimated population in 2019: 1,230 people
  • Oglethorpe County
  • Stephens County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Bowman, with the one closest to Bowman listed first.
    • Martin
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Avalon
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
      • Avalon is located in Stephens County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Avalon
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 226 people
    • Eastanollee
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Carnes Creek
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
      • Carnes Creek is located in Stephens County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Carnes Creek
      • Estimated population in 2019: 601 people
    • Jarrett
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Jarrett is located in Stephens County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jarrett
      • Estimated population in 2019: 3,974 people
    • Toccoa
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Wilkes County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Bowman, with the one closest to Bowman listed first.
    • Centerville
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
    • Tignall
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Rayle
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
    • New Town
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
      • New Town is located in Wilkes County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for New Town
  • Abbeville County (SC)
  • Anderson County (SC)
  • Oconee County (SC)

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

Cemeteries Near Bowman ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Bowman.

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

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

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

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Bowman had a population of 323 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Bowman had a population of 812 people.

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

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

Newspapers Published in Bowman ...

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 34 newspapers that have been published in the area around Bowman.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Bowman, there are papers which were published within 16 miles [25.7 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Bowman.

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 helpful 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 Bowman:

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