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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 Zoar (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 Zoar. 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 southwest corner of their home parish. During their lives, most 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.

Zoar is located in Jackson 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 Jackson Parish: Bienville, Caldwell, Lincoln, Ouachita & Winn.

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

  • Jackson Parish     (The home parish of Zoar)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Zoar, with the one closest to Zoar listed first.
    • Chatham
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Dalley ‑ Historic
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Dalley is located in Jackson Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dalley
    • Nash ‑ Historic
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
      • Nash is located in Jackson Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nash
    • Eros
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
      • 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>
    • Weston
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
    • Cartwright
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
    • East Hodge
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
    • Jonesboro
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
    • Hodge
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
    • North Hodge
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
      • North Hodge is located in Jackson Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Hodge
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 372 people
    • Ansley
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
    • Quitman
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
  • Bienville Parish
  • Caldwell Parish
  • Catahoula Parish
  • Grant Parish
    • Georgetown
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
  • La Salle Parish
    • The following are listed by their distance from Zoar, with the one closest to Zoar listed first.
    • Standard
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Olla
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
      • Olla is located in La Salle Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Olla
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,371 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Olla <1>
    • Urania
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
    • Tullos
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
    • Zenoria
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
  • Lincoln Parish
    • The following are listed by their distance from Zoar, with the one closest to Zoar listed first.
    • Averit ‑ Historic
      (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
      • Averit is located in Lincoln Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Averit
    • Choudrant
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
    • Sibley
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
    • Ruston
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Grambling
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Ouachita Parish
    • The following are listed by their distance from Zoar, with the one closest to Zoar listed first.
    • Lapine
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Bosco
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
    • Cuba
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
    • Indian Village
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
      • Indian Village is located in Ouachita Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Indian Village
    • Forksville
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
    • Calhoun
      (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
    • Claiborne
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Claiborne is located in Ouachita Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Claiborne
    • Richwood
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Richwood is located in Ouachita Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Richwood
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 3,375 people
    • Eureka
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
    • Frost Town
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
      • Frost Town is located in Ouachita Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Frost Town
    • Pino Bayou Village
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
      • Pino Bayou Village is located in Ouachita Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pino Bayou Village
    • Monroe
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Union Parish
  • Winn Parish

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

Cemeteries Near Zoar ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Zoar.

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

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

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

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

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

  • Newport
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
  • Cotton Plant
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Cotton Plant is located in Caldwell Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cotton Plant
  • Hickory Valley
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
    • Hickory Valley is located in Winn Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hickory Valley
  • Dalley ‑ Historic
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Dalley is located in Jackson Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dalley
  • Gaars Mill
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Gaars Mill is located in Winn Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gaars Mill
  • Mount Pleasant
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
  • Nash ‑ Historic
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
    • Nash is located in Jackson Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nash
  • Flat Creek
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
  • Weston
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
  • Blankston
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
    • Blankston is located in Caldwell Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Blankston
  • Hebron
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Hebron is located in Jackson Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hebron
  • Riverton
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
    • Riverton is located in Caldwell Parish
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Riverton
  • Continue List   (13 more) ...
    • Corey
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
      • Corey is located in Caldwell Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Corey
    • Lapine
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Cadeville
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
      • Cadeville is located in Ouachita Parish
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cadeville

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

Newspapers Published in Zoar ...

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 27 newspapers that have been published in the area around Zoar.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Zoar, there are papers which were published within 23 miles [37 km]<2>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Zoar.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first visit 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 Zoar:

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>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- Zoar) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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>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 Zoar, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.