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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 Big Point (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 Big Point. 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 Big Point ...

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.

For example, a typical abbreviation for Big Point: Big Pt.

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 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 northwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors and hospitals were in the next county to the west. Almost all of the nearby churches and cemeteries were in the county to the north.

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 west contained birth and death records; the county to the north 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.

Big Point is located in 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 Big Point. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Big Point:

  • Jackson County     (The home county of Big Point)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Big Point, with the one closest to Big Point listed first.
    • Hurley
      (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Wade
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Wade is located in Jackson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wade
    • Helena
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
      • Helena is located in Jackson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Helena
    • Coll Town
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Coll Town is located in Jackson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Coll Town
    • Americus ‑ Historic
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Escatawpa
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
      • Escatawpa is located in Jackson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Escatawpa
    • Brewton ‑ Historic
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
    • Moss Point
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
    • Orange Grove
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
      • Orange Grove is located in Jackson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Orange Grove
    • Hickory Hills
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Hickory Hills is located in Jackson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hickory Hills
    • Vancleave
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
    • Martin Bluff
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
      • Martin Bluff is located in Jackson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Martin Bluff
    • Eastside
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
  • George County
  • Harrison County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Big Point, with the one closest to Big Point listed first.
    • D'Iberville
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
    • Biloxi
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Mobile County (AL)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Big Point, with the one closest to Big Point listed first.
    • Grand Bay
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Saint Elmo
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Saint Elmo is located in Mobile County (AL)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Saint Elmo
    • Irvington
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
    • Wilmer
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Bayou La Batre
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Theodore
      (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
    • Tillmans Corner
      (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
    • Semmes
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
    • Country Club Village
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
      • Country Club Village is located in Mobile County (AL)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Country Club Village
    • Coden
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Bellefontaine
      (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
    • Eight Mile
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Mon Louis
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
      • Mon Louis is located in Mobile County (AL)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mon Louis

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

Cemeteries Near Big Point ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Big Point.

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 Big Point - one of the links might be able to help.

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Big Point, with the one closest to Big Point 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 Big Point in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Big Point.

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

  • Three Rivers
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Three Rivers is located in Jackson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Three Rivers
  • Escatawpa
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
    • Escatawpa is located in Jackson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Escatawpa
  • Americus ‑ Historic
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
  • Moss Point
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
  • Orange Grove
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
    • Orange Grove is located in Jackson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Orange Grove
  • Grand Bay
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Vancleave
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
  • Fernland
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Fernland is located in Mobile County (AL)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fernland
  • Saint Elmo
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Saint Elmo is located in Mobile County (AL)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Saint Elmo
  • Pascagoula
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
  • Fort Bayou ‑ Historic
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Fort Bayou is located in Jackson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fort Bayou
  • Bayou La Batre
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
  • Continue List   (13 more) ...
    • Theodore
      (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
    • Coden
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Fowl River
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Fowl River is located in Mobile County (AL)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fowl River

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

Newspapers Published in Big Point ...

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 8 newspapers that have been published in the area around Big Point.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Big Point, there are papers which were published within 16 miles [25.7 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Big Point.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we begin 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 Big Point:

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