RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Louisiana >> Ouachita Parish >> Swartz >> Genealogy HelperIndex...

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 Swartz (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 Swartz. 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 ...

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 northwest 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 north.

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 north 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.

Swartz is located in Ouachita 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 Ouachita Parish: Caldwell, Jackson, Lincoln, Morehouse, Richland & Union.

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

  • Ouachita Parish     (The home parish of Swartz)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Swartz, with the one closest to Swartz listed first.
    • Leisure Village
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
      • Leisure Village is located in Ouachita Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Leisure Village
    • Spanish City
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Spanish City is located in Ouachita Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spanish City
    • Northpark Village
      (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
      • Northpark Village is located in Ouachita Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Northpark Village
    • Fairbanks
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Monroe
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Sterlington
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Pino Bayou Village
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
      • Pino Bayou Village is located in Ouachita Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pino Bayou Village
    • Richwood
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
      • Richwood is located in Ouachita Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Richwood
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 3,375 people
    • West Monroe
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
    • Claiborne
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
      • Claiborne is located in Ouachita Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Claiborne
    • Lapine
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Bosco
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
  • Caldwell Parish
  • Franklin Parish
    • The following are listed by their distance from Swartz, with the one closest to Swartz listed first.
    • Big Creek
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
      • Big Creek is located in Franklin Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Big Creek
    • Baskin
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Baskinton
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Liddieville
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
  • Jackson Parish
    • The following are listed by their distance from Swartz, with the one closest to Swartz listed first.
    • Eros
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Eros is located in Jackson Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eros
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 151 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Eros <1>
    • Nash ‑ Historic
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Nash is located in Jackson Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nash
    • Cartwright
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
  • Lincoln Parish
    • The following are listed by their distance from Swartz, with the one closest to Swartz listed first.
    • Averit ‑ Historic
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
      • Averit is located in Lincoln Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Averit
    • Sibley
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
    • Choudrant
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
  • Morehouse Parish
    • The following are listed by their distance from Swartz, with the one closest to Swartz listed first.
    • Windsor
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Collinston
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Oak Ridge
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
    • Bastrop
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
    • Mer Rouge
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
    • Brodnax ‑ Historic
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
      • Brodnax is located in Morehouse Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brodnax
    • Bonita
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Richland Parish
  • Union Parish
  • West Carroll Parish
    • Epps
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
      • Epps is located in West Carroll Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Epps
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 809 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Epps <1>

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

Cemeteries Near Swartz ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Swartz.

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

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

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

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

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

  • Sicard
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Sicard is located in Ouachita Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sicard
  • Millhaven
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • Millhaven is located in Ouachita Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Millhaven
  • Crew Lake
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Crew Lake is located in Richland Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crew Lake
  • Monroe
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Doss ‑ Historic
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Doss is located in Morehouse Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Doss
  • West Monroe
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
  • De Siard
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
    • De Siard is located in Ouachita Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for De Siard
  • Ouachita City
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Girard
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Girard is located in Richland Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Girard
  • Oak Ridge
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
  • Rayville
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Cleora ‑ Historic
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Cleora is located in Morehouse Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cleora
  • Continue List   (14 more) ...

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

Newspapers Published in Swartz ...

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 53 newspapers that have been published in the area around Swartz.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Swartz, there are papers which were published within 15 miles [24.1 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Swartz.

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 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 Swartz:

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 Swartz, 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- Swartz) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.