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A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
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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 Preston (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 Preston. 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 northwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors were in the next county to the west. Almost all of the nearby churches and cemeteries were in the county to the north.

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 north 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.

Preston is located in Webster 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 Webster County: Chattahoochee, Marion, Randolph, Schley, Stewart, Sumter & Terrell.

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

  • Webster County     (The home county of Preston)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Preston, with the one closest to Preston listed first.
    • Weston
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Leveretts
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
  • Chattahoochee County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Preston, with the one closest to Preston listed first.
    • Ida Vesper
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Cusseta
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Halloca ‑ Historic
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
      • Halloca is located in Chattahoochee County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Halloca
    • Central Springs
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Heineburg Village ‑ Historic
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Heineburg Village is located in Chattahoochee County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Heineburg Village
      • Estimated population in 2014: 2,893 people
    • Ochillee
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
      • Ochillee is located in Chattahoochee County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ochillee
      • Estimated population in 2019: 680 people
  • Lee County
  • Macon County
    • Ideal
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Marion County
  • Quitman County
  • Randolph County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Preston, with the one closest to Preston listed first.
    • Brooksville
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Brooksville is located in Randolph County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brooksville
      • Estimated population in 2019: 559 people
    • Wades
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
      • Wades is located in Randolph County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wades
      • Estimated population in 2019: 1,858 people
    • Shellman
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
    • Five Points
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
    • Cuthbert
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Schley County
  • Stewart County
  • Sumter County
  • Taylor County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Preston, with the one closest to Preston listed first.
    • Rupert
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Mauk
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
  • Terrell County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Preston, with the one closest to Preston listed first.
    • Parrott
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
    • Yeomans
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
      • Yeomans is located in Terrell County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Yeomans
      • Population from the 2010 Census: 507 people
    • Olivers Mill
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
      • Olivers Mill is located in Terrell County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Olivers Mill
      • Estimated population in 2019: 230 people
    • Bronwood
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Dawson
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
    • Herod
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
      • Herod is located in Terrell County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Herod
      • Population from the 2010 Census: 3,384 people
    • Sasser
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Clarks Mill
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
      • Clarks Mill is located in Terrell County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clarks Mill
      • Estimated population in 2019: 12,637 people
  • Russell County (AL)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Preston, with the one closest to Preston listed first.
    • Holy Trinity
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
      • Holy Trinity is located in Russell County (AL)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Holy Trinity
    • Loflin
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
    • Oswichee
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)

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

Cemeteries Near Preston ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Preston.

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

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Preston, with the one closest to Preston 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.<4>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Preston had a population of 270 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service.

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

  • Gooseberry ‑ Historic
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Gooseberry is located in Webster County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gooseberry
  • Church Hill
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Church Hill is located in Marion County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Church Hill
  • Kimbrough
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Kimbrough is located in Webster County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kimbrough
  • Weston
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
  • Leveretts
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
  • Plains
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
  • Friendship
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Friendship is located in Sumter County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Friendship
  • Richland
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
  • Hoggs ‑ Historic
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
    • Hoggs is located in Marion County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hoggs
  • Draneville
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
  • Randall
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
    • Randall is located in Stewart County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Randall
  • Parrott
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
  • Continue List   (16 more) ...
    • Cottondale
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Cottondale is located in Terrell County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cottondale
    • Brooklyn
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Brooklyn is located in Stewart County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brooklyn
    • Pineville
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
      • Pineville is located in Marion County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pineville

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

Newspapers Published in Preston ...

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 62 newspapers that have been published in the area around Preston.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Preston, there are papers which were published within 25 miles [40.2 km]<2>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Preston.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we start with the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These websites either 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 Preston:

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 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Preston) 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 Preston, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.