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

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.

In past government published Postal Guides, Homer was referred to as Homer Courthouse.

You might be interested in other communities that are also named Homer. More information can be found on our Tidbits & Trivia Page for Homer.

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.

For more information about how community names might have been affected by the Board of Geographic Names (BGN), see our page about Placename Rules.

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 southwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals and doctors were in the next county to the west. 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 west 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.

Homer is located in Banks County and is the County Seat.

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 Banks County: Franklin, Habersham, Hall, Jackson, Madison & Stephens.

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

  • Banks County     (The home county of Homer)
  • Barrow County
  • Clarke County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Homer, with the one closest to Homer listed first.
    • Jefferson Valley
      (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
      • Jefferson Valley is located in Clarke County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jefferson Valley
      • Estimated population in 2019: 939 people
    • Athens
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
    • Cleveland Station
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
      • Cleveland Station is located in Clarke County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cleveland Station
      • Estimated population in 2019: 4,165 people
    • Pine Lake
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
      • Pine Lake is located in Clarke County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pine Lake
      • Estimated population in 2019: 754 people
    • Lexington Heights
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
      • Lexington Heights is located in Clarke County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lexington Heights
      • Estimated population in 2019: 228 people
    • Riverside
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
      • Riverside is located in Clarke County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Riverside
      • Estimated population in 2016: 35 people
    • Winterville
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Cedar Shoals Estates
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
      • Cedar Shoals Estates is located in Clarke County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cedar Shoals Estates
      • Population from the 2010 Census: 74 people
  • Dawson County
    • Lumpkin
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
      • Lumpkin is located in Dawson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lumpkin
      • Estimated population in 2019: 1,266 people
  • Elbert County
  • Forsyth County
  • Franklin County
  • Gwinnett County
    • Rest Haven
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Rest Haven is located in Gwinnett County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rest Haven
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 65 people
  • Habersham County
  • Hall County
  • Hart County
  • Jackson County
  • Lumpkin County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Homer, with the one closest to Homer listed first.
    • Grace ‑ Historic
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
      • Grace is located in Lumpkin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grace
    • Garland
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
    • New Bridge ‑ Historic
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
      • New Bridge is located in Lumpkin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for New Bridge
    • Dahlonega
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Willow ‑ Historic
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Willow is located in Lumpkin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Willow
      • Population from the 2010 Census: 15,138 people
  • Madison County
  • Oconee County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Homer, with the one closest to Homer listed first.
    • Bogart
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
    • Osceola Village
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
      • Osceola Village is located in Oconee County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Osceola Village
    • Overlook Village
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
      • Overlook Village is located in Oconee County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Overlook Village
    • Spartan Lane
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
      • Spartan Lane is located in Oconee County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spartan Lane
      • Estimated population in 2019: 1,230 people
  • Rabun County
    • Tallulah Falls
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
  • Stephens County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Homer, with the one closest to Homer listed first.
    • Carnes Creek
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
      • Carnes Creek is located in Stephens County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Carnes Creek
      • Estimated population in 2019: 601 people
    • Eastanollee
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
    • Toccoa Falls
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Toccoa
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Avalon
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Avalon is located in Stephens County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Avalon
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 226 people
    • Martin
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Jarrett
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
      • Jarrett is located in Stephens County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jarrett
      • Estimated population in 2019: 3,974 people
  • White County
  • Oconee County (SC)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Homer, with the one closest to Homer listed first.
    • Madison
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Harbin ‑ Historic
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Harbin is located in Oconee County (SC)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harbin

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

Cemeteries Near Homer ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Homer.

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

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Homer, with the one closest to Homer 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.<2>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Homer had a population of 144 people in 1895 with a post office and no railroad service. In 2020, Homer had a population of 1,257 people.

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

  • Arp
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
    • Arp is located in Banks County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Arp
  • Maysville
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Jewelville
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Jewelville is located in Banks County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jewelville
  • Gillsville
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
  • Hollingsworth
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • Hollingsworth is located in Banks County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hollingsworth
  • Ashland
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
    • Ashland is located in Franklin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ashland
  • Walnut Hill ‑ Historic
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
    • Walnut Hill is located in Franklin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Walnut Hill
  • Bellton
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
    • Bellton is located in Banks County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bellton
  • Constantine
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Constantine is located in Jackson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Constantine
  • Dry Pond
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Dry Pond is located in Jackson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dry Pond
    • Estimated population in 2019: 15,881 people
  • Erastus
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Erastus is located in Banks County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Erastus
  • Longview
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Longview is located in Habersham County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Longview
  • Continue List   (20 more) ...

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Homer ...

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 39 newspapers that have been published in the area around Homer.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Homer. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Homer and those printed in the larger area surrounding Homer.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 18 miles [29 km]<3> of Homer.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first visit the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These professional and volunteer 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 Homer:

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>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 Homer, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<3>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or 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- Homer) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.