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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 Clarksdale (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 Clarksdale. 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 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.

Clarksdale is located in Coahoma County and is the County Seat.

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 Coahoma County: Phillips (AR), Bolivar, Quitman, Tallahatchie & Tunica.

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

  • Coahoma County     (The home county of Clarksdale)
  • Bolivar County
  • Panola County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Clarksdale, with the one closest to Clarksdale listed first.
    • Mims
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
    • Ballentine
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Crenshaw
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Quitman County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Clarksdale, with the one closest to Clarksdale listed first.
    • Yarbrough
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
    • Vance
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Lambert
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
    • Marks
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
      • Marks is located in Quitman County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Marks
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,408 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Marks <1>
    • Falcon
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
      • Falcon is located in Quitman County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Falcon
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 142 people
    • Bobo
      (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
    • Crowder
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
      • Crowder is located in Quitman County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crowder
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 645 people
    • Sledge
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
  • Sunflower County
  • Tallahatchie County
  • Tunica County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Clarksdale, with the one closest to Clarksdale listed first.
    • Clayton
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
    • Peyton ‑ Historic
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
  • Desha County (AR)
    • Snow Lake
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
      • Snow Lake is located in Desha County (AR)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Snow Lake
  • Phillips County (AR)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Clarksdale, with the one closest to Clarksdale listed first.
    • Old Town
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Old Town is located in Phillips County (AR)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Old Town
    • Elaine
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
      • Elaine is located in Phillips County (AR)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elaine
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 481 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Elaine <1>
    • Wabash
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Lakeview
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
      • Lakeview is located in Phillips County (AR)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lakeview
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 349 people
    • Oneida
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Oneida is located in Phillips County (AR)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oneida
    • Mellwood
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
      • Mellwood is located in Phillips County (AR)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mellwood
    • Helena
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
    • Helena - West Helena
      (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
      • Helena - West Helena is located in Phillips County (AR)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Helena - West Helena
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 10,032 people
    • Huma
      (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
    • Crumrod
      (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
      • Crumrod is located in Phillips County (AR)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crumrod
    • West Helena
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
    • Lambrook
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
      • Lambrook is located in Phillips County (AR)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lambrook

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

Cemeteries Near Clarksdale ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Clarksdale.

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

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Clarksdale, with the one closest to Clarksdale 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 Clarksdale had a population of 781 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Clarksdale had a population of 14,470 people.

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

  • Lyon
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
  • Clover Hill
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
  • Bobo
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Bobo is located in Coahoma County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bobo
  • Stovall
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Stovall is located in Coahoma County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stovall
  • Sherard
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Sherard is located in Coahoma County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sherard
  • Eagles Nest
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
  • Dublin
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Dickerson
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Dickerson is located in Coahoma County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dickerson
  • Jonestown
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Green Grove
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
    • Green Grove is located in Coahoma County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Green Grove
  • Alligator
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Matagorda
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Matagorda is located in Coahoma County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Matagorda
  • 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 Clarksdale. See our List of 1890's Communities around Clarksdale.

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Clarksdale ...

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 46 newspapers that have been published in the area around Clarksdale.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Clarksdale. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Clarksdale and those printed in the larger area surrounding Clarksdale.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 22 miles [35.4 km]<2> of Clarksdale.

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 helpful 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 Clarksdale:

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 things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Clarksdale) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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 Clarksdale, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.