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 Allens Spring (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 Allens Spring. 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 Allens Spring ...
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.
Although we can't give a definitive list, hopefully the following will give you a feel for the variations that might have occurred.
A typical abbreviation for Allens Spring: Allens Spg. (or less commonly used: Allens Spng. or Allens Sprng.)
While the name of this community is Allens Spring, be aware that it's the common practice of mapmakers to remove the apostrophe from possessive names<1>. So Allens Spring may originally have been Allen's Spring.
Sometimes the trailing 's' might be dropped altogether, in which case Allens Spring might be written as Allen Spring.
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.
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 hospitals 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.
Below are the counties that are near Allens Spring. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Allens Spring:
Pope County (The home county of Allens Spring)
The following are listed by their distance from Allens Spring, with the one closest to Allens Spring listed first.
Dixon Springs (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Glendale. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for McCormick. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Bay City. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Hartsville. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
The following are listed by their distance from Allens Spring, with the one closest to Allens Spring listed first.
Shetlerville (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Shetlerville. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
Karbers Ridge (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Karbers Ridge. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Rock Creek. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
The following are listed by their distance from Allens Spring, with the one closest to Allens Spring listed first.
Reevesville (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Reevesville. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Grantsburg. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for New Columbia. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Unionville. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Lick Creek. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Sheridan. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
Pinckneyville (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Pinckneyville. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
The following are listed by their distance from Allens Spring, with the one closest to Allens Spring listed first.
Grahamville (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Grahamville. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Allens Spring.
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.
If you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our selection of Genealogy Websites (see below).
If not found below, our Cemetery List for Allens Spring covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.
The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Allens Spring, with the one closest to Allens Spring listed first.
Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Dixon Springs Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
Mt. Olive Cemetery (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for the Austin Cemetery. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
To give a relative sense of its location, the Austin Cemetery is located 2 miles [3.2 km]<5> to the southwest of Dixon Springs.
To give a relative sense of its location, the Mt. Zion Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located 3 miles [4.8 km]<5> to the southwest of Dixon Springs.
Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Waltersburg Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
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.<7>
The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Allens Spring had a population of 72 people in 1895 with a post office and no railroad service.
These communities are listed based on their distance from Allens Spring, with the one closest to Allens Spring listed first.
Reevesville (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Reevesville. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Glendale. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Grantsburg. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for New Columbia. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
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 93 newspapers that have been published in the area around Allens Spring.
Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Allens Spring, there are papers which were published within 21 miles [33.8 km]<5>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Allens Spring.
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 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 Allens Spring:
It's generally believed that possessive apostrophes are removed to prevent confusion on maps where the apostrophe may be confused with a cartographic symbol. While this is generally true, it's not uncommon to find possessive apostrophes in administrative names (such as towns or counties).
<2>
An 'estimated' location is one where we have been given GPS coordinates, but are unable to verify the accuracy of those coordinates. That said, we have some confidence that we have placed the marker near the actual location. A typical reason for being unable to verify a location is that it might be on private property or maybe historic and gone without an obvious trace.
<3>
The location has been supplied by the Geographic Names Information System - which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While these values should be definitive, we found that accuracy can vary and you should double-check the location if accuracy is required.
<4>
While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<5>
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- Allens Spring) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Allens Spring. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 37.3689, Longitude: -88.6570 In this case, the coordinates for Allens Spring have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>
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.
<7>
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 Allens Spring, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.