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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 Port Allen (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 Port Allen. 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 Port Allen ...

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.

For example, a typical abbreviation for Port Allen: Prt. Allen

You might be interested in other communities that are also named Port Allen. More information can be found on our Tidbits & Trivia Page for Port Allen.

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 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 southeast corner of their home parish. During their lives, most hospitals and doctors were in the next parish to the east. 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 east 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.

Port Allen is located in West Baton Rouge Parish and is the Parish Seat.

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 West Baton Rouge Parish: East Baton Rouge, Iberville & Pointe Coupee.

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

  • West Baton Rouge Parish     (The home parish of Port Allen)
  • Ascension Parish
    • The following are listed by their distance from Port Allen, with the one closest to Port Allen listed first.
    • Bullion
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Bullion is located in Ascension Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bullion
    • Hope Villa
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Hope Villa is located in Ascension Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hope Villa
    • Oak Grove
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Oak Grove is located in Ascension Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oak Grove
    • Prairieville
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Dutch Town
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
    • Hobart
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
      • Hobart is located in Ascension Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hobart
    • Southwood
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
      • Southwood is located in Ascension Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Southwood
    • Little Prairie
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
      • Little Prairie is located in Ascension Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Little Prairie
    • Galvez Town
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
      • Galvez Town is located in Ascension Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Galvez Town
    • Cornerview
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Cornerview is located in Ascension Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cornerview
    • Duplessis
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Geismar
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
  • Assumption Parish
  • East Baton Rouge Parish
    • The following are listed by their distance from Port Allen, with the one closest to Port Allen listed first.
    • Beauregard Town
      (Less than 2 miles to the east)
      • Beauregard Town is located in East Baton Rouge Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Beauregard Town
    • Baton Rouge
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Maribel Village
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Maribel Village is located in East Baton Rouge Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Maribel Village
    • Merrydale
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Merrydale is located in East Baton Rouge Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Merrydale
    • Zion City
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Zion City is located in East Baton Rouge Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Zion City
    • Westminster
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
      • Westminster is located in East Baton Rouge Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Westminster
    • Essen
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Lynwood Village
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Lynwood Village is located in East Baton Rouge Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lynwood Village
    • Brownfields
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
      • Brownfields is located in East Baton Rouge Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brownfields
    • Gardere
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
      • Gardere is located in East Baton Rouge Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gardere
    • Inniswold
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Baker
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
  • East Feliciana Parish
    • The following are listed by their distance from Port Allen, with the one closest to Port Allen listed first.
    • Lindsay
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
    • Slaughter
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
    • Bells Store ‑ Historic
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
      • Bells Store is located in East Feliciana Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bells Store
    • Ethel
      (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
    • Blairstown
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Jackson
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
      • Jackson is located in East Feliciana Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jackson
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 3,707 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Jackson <1>
    • Clinton
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
      • Clinton is located in East Feliciana Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clinton
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,486 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Clinton <1>
  • Iberville Parish
  • Livingston Parish
    • The following are listed by their distance from Port Allen, with the one closest to Port Allen listed first.
    • Denham Springs
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
    • Watson
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Walker
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
    • Port Vincent
      (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
      • Port Vincent is located in Livingston Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Port Vincent
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 650 people
    • Oldfield
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
      • Oldfield is located in Livingston Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oldfield
    • French Settlement
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Livingston
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
  • Pointe Coupee Parish
  • Saint Helena Parish
  • Saint Martin Parish
  • West Feliciana Parish
    • The following are listed by their distance from Port Allen, with the one closest to Port Allen listed first.
    • Saint Francisville
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Bains
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
    • Converse ‑ Historic
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
      • Converse is located in West Feliciana Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Converse

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

Cemeteries Near Port Allen ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Port Allen.

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 Port Allen - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Port Allen had a population of 250 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Port Allen had a population of 4,720 people.

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

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Port Allen ...

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 100 newspapers that have been published in the area around Port Allen.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Port Allen. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Port Allen and those printed in the larger area surrounding Port Allen.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 3 miles [4.8 km]<4> of Port Allen.

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 Port Allen:

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 Port Allen, 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' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Port Allen) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.