RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Georgia >> Washington County >> Harrison >> 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 Harrison (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 Harrison. 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 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.

Harrison is located in Washington 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 Washington County: Baldwin, Glascock, Hancock, Jefferson, Johnson, Warren & Wilkinson.

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

  • Washington County     (The home county of Harrison)
  • Baldwin County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Harrison, with the one closest to Harrison listed first.
    • Oconee Old Town ‑ Historic
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Oconee Old Town is located in Baldwin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oconee Old Town
    • Black Spring
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Black Spring is located in Baldwin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Black Spring
  • Burke County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Harrison, with the one closest to Harrison listed first.
    • Number Ten ‑ Historic
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
      • Number Ten is located in Burke County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Number Ten
      • Estimated population in 2019: 145 people
    • Magruder
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
    • Midville
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
    • Rosier
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
  • Emanuel County
  • Glascock County
  • Hancock County
  • Jefferson County
  • Johnson County
  • Laurens County
  • Treutlen County
  • Wilkinson County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Harrison, with the one closest to Harrison listed first.
    • Beech Hill
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
      • Beech Hill is located in Wilkinson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Beech Hill
    • Toomsboro
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
    • Irwinton
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
    • McIntyre
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
    • Dedrich
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
      • Dedrich is located in Wilkinson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dedrich
      • Population from the 2010 Census: 2,146 people

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

Cemeteries Near Harrison ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Harrison.

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

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

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

  • Smith Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
  • Pleasant Plains Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
  • Bethany Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Mt. Gilead Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Mt. Moriah Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
  • New Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
  • Bridges Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
  • Wise Family Cemetery
    • The Wise Family Cemetery is located on private property - be sure to secure permission before visiting.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wise Family Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2426386 <2>
  • Curry Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
  • New Bethel Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
  • West View Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
  • Jackson Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
  • Continue List   (354 more) ...
    • Piney Mount Cemetery
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Old Bethesda Cemetery
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Pleasant Springs Cemetery
      (7 miles [11.3 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>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Harrison had a population of 575 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Harrison had a population of 433 people.

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

  • Pringle
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
    • Pringle is located in Washington County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pringle
  • Wrightsville
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
  • Riddleville
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Riddleville is located in Washington County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Riddleville
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 86 people
  • Sun Hill
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
    • Sun Hill is located in Washington County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sun Hill
  • Tennille
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Spann
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
    • Spann is located in Johnson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spann
  • Sandersville
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Lovett
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
  • Oconee
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
  • Kite
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Bartow
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
  • Pinetucky ‑ Historic
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
    • Pinetucky is located in Jefferson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pinetucky
  • Continue List   (14 more) ...
    • Downs
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
      • Downs is located in Washington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Downs
    • Beech Hill
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
      • Beech Hill is located in Wilkinson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Beech Hill
    • Wadley
      (18 miles [29 km] to the east)

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

Newspapers Published in Harrison ...

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 66 newspapers that have been published in the area around Harrison.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Harrison, there are papers which were published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Harrison.

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 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 Harrison:

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 Harrison, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<4>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 drawn from Point A (ie- Harrison) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.