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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 Denham Springs (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 Denham Springs. 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 Denham Springs ...

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 occur.

Over the years, Denham Springs had several name changes:

  • Prior to its current name of Denham Springs, it was known as Hill's Springs.
  • Before changing to Hill's Springs, it was named Amite Springs.
  • Denham Springs was originally named Amite Springs

  • A typical abbreviation for Denham Springs: Denham Spgs. (or less commonly used: Denham Spngs. or Denham Sprngs.)

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.

A Few Details for Denham Springs ...

While it's still very early in our research, we found that:

  • It was incorporated on May 8, 1903.

Neighboring Parishes ...

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

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 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, we would have missed many valuable sources of information.

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

Denham Springs is located in Livingston 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 Livingston Parish: Ascension, East Baton Rouge, Saint Helena, Saint James, Saint John the Baptist & Tangipahoa.

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

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

Cemeteries Near Denham Springs ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Denham Springs.

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 Denham Springs - one of the links might be able to help.

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Denham Springs, with the one closest to Denham Springs 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 Denham Springs had a population of 28 people in 1895 with a post office and no railroad service. In 2020, Denham Springs had a population of 9,842 people.

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

  • Magnolia
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Magnolia is located in East Baton Rouge Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Magnolia
  • Walker
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
  • Hopeville ‑ Historic
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
    • Hopeville is located in East Baton Rouge Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hopeville
  • Stonypoint ‑ Historic
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
    • Stonypoint is located in East Baton Rouge Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stonypoint
  • Oldfield
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Oldfield is located in Livingston Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oldfield
  • Baton Rouge
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
  • Port Vincent
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Port Vincent is located in Livingston Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Port Vincent
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 650 people
  • Colyell
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Colyell is located in Livingston Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Colyell
  • Galvez
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
    • Galvez is located in Ascension Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Galvez
  • Baker
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
  • Gardere
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Gardere is located in East Baton Rouge Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gardere
  • Port Allen
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
  • Continue List   (16 more) ...

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

Newspapers Published in Denham Springs ...

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 7 newspapers that have been published in the area around Denham Springs.

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 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 Denham Springs:

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>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Denham Springs) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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 Denham Springs, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.