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Our Genealogy Helper

Introduction ...

So far, we found very little information about Bannister. The little that we've found leads us believe that the community is historic.<1>

We've added Bannister to our Gazetteer with the hope that we can develop more information. If you can help us with Bannister, please Contact Us.

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 Bannister (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 Bannister. 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 Parishes/Counties ...

When searching for family records, we have frequently made the mistake of not checking the neighboring parishes/counties.

For example, we have great-grandparents who lived in the southwest corner of their home parish. During their lives, most hospitals and doctors were in the next parish to the west. Almost all of the nearby churches and cemeteries were in the parish to the south.

So when searching for records, we had our best success by looking in neighboring parishes/counties instead of the parish in which they lived:  their home parish contained property and probate records; the parish to the west contained birth and death records; the parish to the south contained their burial records. If we hadn't included the neighboring parishes/counties, we would have missed many valuable sources of information.

If you're in a similar situation, we hope that the following information helps.

Although our information shows that the community of Bannister is historic, it would have been located within present day Beauregard Parish.

To see how the shape of Louisiana's parishes may have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

The following parishes adjoin and form the boundaries of Beauregard Parish: Allen, Calcasieu, Jefferson Davis, Vernon & Newton (TX).

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

  • Beauregard Parish     (The home parish of Bannister)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Bannister, with the one closest to Bannister listed first.
    • Longville
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • DeRidder
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
    • Newlin
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
      • Newlin is located in Beauregard Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Newlin
    • Fayette ‑ Historic
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
      • Fayette is located in Beauregard Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fayette
    • Singer
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
    • Ikes
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
      • Ikes is located in Beauregard Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ikes
    • Ludington
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
      • Ludington is located in Beauregard Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ludington
    • Dry Creek
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
    • Ragley
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
    • Sugartown
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Merryville
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
    • Helme
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
      • Helme is located in Beauregard Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Helme
  • Allen Parish
    • The following are listed by their distance from Bannister, with the one closest to Bannister listed first.
    • Reeves
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Grant
      (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
    • Cherry Grove
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
      • Cherry Grove is located in Allen Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cherry Grove
    • Mittie
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
    • Tenmile
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
      • Tenmile is located in Allen Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tenmile
    • Le Blanc
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
      • Le Blanc is located in Allen Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Le Blanc
    • Reids
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
      • Reids is located in Allen Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Reids
    • Indian Village
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
      • Indian Village is located in Allen Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Indian Village
    • Marionville ‑ Historic
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
      • Marionville is located in Allen Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Marionville
    • Elder
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
      • Elder is located in Allen Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elder
    • Elizabeth
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Kinder
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Calcasieu Parish
    • The following are listed by their distance from Bannister, with the one closest to Bannister listed first.
    • Dequincy
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Ararat
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
      • Ararat is located in Calcasieu Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ararat
    • Moss Bluff
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
    • Westlake
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
  • Jefferson Davis Parish
    • Fenton
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Fenton is located in Jefferson Davis Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fenton
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 349 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Fenton <2>
  • Vernon Parish
    • The following are listed by their distance from Bannister, with the one closest to Bannister listed first.
    • Rosepine
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
    • Cole Central
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Cole Central is located in Vernon Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cole Central
    • Pinewood
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
      • Pinewood is located in Vernon Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pinewood
    • Cravens
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
      • Cravens is located in Vernon Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cravens
    • Elmwood
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
      • Elmwood is located in Vernon Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elmwood
    • Pickering
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
      • Pickering is located in Vernon Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pickering
    • Fort Polk
      (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
    • Savage Fork
      (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
      • Savage Fork is located in Vernon Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Savage Fork
    • Pitkin
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Evans
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Dido
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Dido is located in Vernon Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dido
    • Fullerton
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
  • Newton County (TX)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Bannister, with the one closest to Bannister listed first.
    • Hughes ‑ Historic
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
      • Hughes is located in Newton County (TX)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hughes
    • Bon Wier
      (23 miles [37 km] to the west)

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

Cemeteries Near Bannister ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Bannister.

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

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

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

  • Bishop Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
  • Barentine Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
  • Havens Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
  • Frusha Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Whitaker Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
  • Pleasant Hill Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
  • Hopwell Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
  • Newlin Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
  • Beauregard Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
  • Woodlawn Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
  • Lindsey Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
  • Shiloh Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
  • Continue List   (97 more) ...
    • Magnolia Cemetery
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
    • Hoy Cemetery
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Good Hope Cemetery
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)

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.

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

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

  • Elmwood
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
    • Elmwood is located in Vernon Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elmwood
  • Belgrade
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
    • Belgrade is located in Newton County (TX)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Belgrade
  • Dido
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Dido is located in Vernon Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dido
  • Caney
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
    • Caney is located in Vernon Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Caney

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

Newspapers Published in Bannister ...

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 9 newspapers that have been published in the area around Bannister.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Bannister, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Bannister.

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 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 Bannister:

Footnotes ...

<1>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 Bannister, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<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>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- Bannister) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.