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Our Genealogy Helper

Introduction ...

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

We've added Americus to our Gazetteer with the hope that we can develop more information. If you can help us with Americus, 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 Americus (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 Americus. 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 Americus ...

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.

In past government published Postal Guides, Americus was referred to as Americus Courthouse.

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

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.

For more information about how community names might have been affected by the Board of Geographic Names (BGN), see our page about Placename Rules.

Neighboring Counties ...

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

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

So when searching for records, we had our best success by looking in neighboring counties instead of the county in which they lived:  their home county contained property and probate records; the county to the east contained birth and death records; the county to the south contained their burial records. If we hadn't included the neighboring 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 Americus is historic, it would have been located within present day Jackson County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Jackson County: Mobile (AL), George, Harrison & Stone.

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

  • Jackson County     (The home county of Americus)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Americus, with the one closest to Americus listed first.
    • Wade
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
      • Wade is located in Jackson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wade
    • Hurley
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Brewton ‑ Historic
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Big Point
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Vancleave
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Coll Town
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
      • Coll Town is located in Jackson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Coll Town
    • Helena
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
      • Helena is located in Jackson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Helena
    • Hickory Hills
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
      • Hickory Hills is located in Jackson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hickory Hills
    • Martin Bluff
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
      • Martin Bluff is located in Jackson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Martin Bluff
    • Escatawpa
      (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
      • Escatawpa is located in Jackson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Escatawpa
    • Fort Bayou ‑ Historic
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
      • Fort Bayou is located in Jackson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fort Bayou
    • Moss Point
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
    • Gautier
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
  • George County
  • Greene County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Americus, with the one closest to Americus listed first.
    • Brown Town
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
    • Hillman
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
    • Leakesville
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
    • McLain
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
      • McLain is located in Greene County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for McLain
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 430 people
  • Harrison County
  • Mobile County (AL)

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

Cemeteries Near Americus ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Americus.

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

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

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

  • Steede Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
  • Oak Grove Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
  • Carter Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
  • Barton Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
  • Old Mt. Pleasant Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
  • Bethany Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
  • Byrd Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
  • Mt. Pleasant Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
  • Movella Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
  • Cain Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Caswell Springs Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
  • Movella Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Continue List   (272 more) ...
    • Gibson Cemetery
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Refuge Cemetery
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • Graham Cemetery
      (7 miles [11.3 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.

Americus itself is historic and was described in the Rand McNally Atlas as having a post office and no railroad service.

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

  • Three Rivers
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
    • Three Rivers is located in Jackson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Three Rivers
  • Vancleave
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
  • Escatawpa
    (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
    • Escatawpa is located in Jackson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Escatawpa
  • Fort Bayou ‑ Historic
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
    • Fort Bayou is located in Jackson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fort Bayou
  • Moss Point
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
  • Orange Grove
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Orange Grove is located in Jackson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Orange Grove
  • Grand Bay
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
  • Pascagoula
    (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
  • Fernland
    (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
    • Fernland is located in Mobile County (AL)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fernland
  • Ocean Springs
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
  • Saint Elmo
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Saint Elmo is located in Mobile County (AL)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Saint Elmo
  • Leaf
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Leaf is located in Greene County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Leaf
  • Continue List   (11 more) ...
    • Kushla
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
      • Kushla is located in Mobile County (AL)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kushla
    • Oak Grove
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
      • Oak Grove is located in Mobile County (AL)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oak Grove
    • Biloxi
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)

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

Newspapers Published in Americus ...

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 18 newspapers that have been published in the area around Americus.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Americus, there are papers which were published within 24 miles [38.6 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Americus.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we like to 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 Americus:

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 Americus, 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>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 from Point A (ie- Americus) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.