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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 Philema (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 Philema. 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 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.

Philema is located in Lee 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 Lee County: Crisp, Dougherty, Sumter, Terrell & Worth.

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

  • Lee County     (The home county of Philema)
  • Calhoun County
  • Colquitt County
  • Crisp County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Philema, with the one closest to Philema listed first.
    • Milldale ‑ Historic
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
      • Milldale is located in Crisp County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Milldale
      • Estimated population in 2019: 18,704 people
    • Arabi
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
    • Cordele
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
    • McKenzie
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
    • Lamb Town
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Lamb Town is located in Crisp County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lamb Town
  • Dooly County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Philema, with the one closest to Philema listed first.
    • Vienna
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Lilly
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
  • Dougherty County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Philema, with the one closest to Philema listed first.
    • Turner City
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Turner City is located in Dougherty County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Turner City
    • Tompkins Village
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
      • Tompkins Village is located in Dougherty County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tompkins Village
    • Colonial Village
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
      • Colonial Village is located in Dougherty County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Colonial Village
    • East Towne
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
      • East Towne is located in Dougherty County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for East Towne
    • Elon Village
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
      • Elon Village is located in Dougherty County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elon Village
    • Eleanor Village
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
      • Eleanor Village is located in Dougherty County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eleanor Village
    • Eugemar
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
      • Eugemar is located in Dougherty County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eugemar
      • Estimated population in 2019: 4,367 people
    • Hinds
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
      • Hinds is located in Dougherty County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hinds
      • Estimated population in 2019: 33,273 people
    • Relswood Terrace
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
      • Relswood Terrace is located in Dougherty County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Relswood Terrace
      • Estimated population in 2019: 1,079 people
    • Albany
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Dawson Heights
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Dawson Heights is located in Dougherty County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dawson Heights
      • Estimated population in 2019: 3,246 people
    • Lake Park
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Lake Park is located in Dougherty County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lake Park
      • Estimated population in 2019: 1,207 people
  • Mitchell County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Philema, with the one closest to Philema listed first.
    • De Witt
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
    • Baconton
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
    • Greenough
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
      • Greenough is located in Mitchell County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Greenough
      • Estimated population in 2019: 3,304 people
  • Sumter County
  • Terrell County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Philema, with the one closest to Philema listed first.
    • Sasser
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
    • Olivers Mill
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
      • Olivers Mill is located in Terrell County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Olivers Mill
      • Estimated population in 2019: 230 people
    • Bronwood
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
    • Dawson
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
    • Herod
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
      • Herod is located in Terrell County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Herod
      • Population from the 2010 Census: 3,384 people
    • Clarks Mill
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
      • Clarks Mill is located in Terrell County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clarks Mill
      • Estimated population in 2019: 12,637 people
    • Yeomans
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
      • Yeomans is located in Terrell County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Yeomans
      • Population from the 2010 Census: 507 people
    • Parrott
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
  • Tift County
  • Turner County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Philema, with the one closest to Philema listed first.
    • Hobby
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
      • Hobby is located in Turner County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hobby
      • Estimated population in 2019: 536 people
    • Ashburn
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
    • Sycamore
      (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
  • Wilcox County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Philema, with the one closest to Philema listed first.
    • Seville
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Pitts
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Worth County

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

Cemeteries Near Philema ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Philema.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Newspapers Published in Philema ...

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 24 newspapers that have been published in the area around Philema.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Philema, there are papers which were published within 15 miles [24.1 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Philema.

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 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 Philema:

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 Philema, 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- Philema) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.