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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 Oak Grove (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 Oak Grove. 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 Oak Grove ...

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.

Another variation: Oakgrove.

  • A typical abbreviation for Oak Grove: Oak Grv.

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

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 southeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals 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.

Oak Grove is located in Perry 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 Perry County: Forrest, George, Greene, Jones, Stone & Wayne.

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

  • Perry County     (The home county of Oak Grove)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Oak Grove, with the one closest to Oak Grove listed first.
    • Beaumont
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
      • Beaumont is located in Perry County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Beaumont
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 894 people
    • New Augusta
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
    • Wingate
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
      • Wingate is located in Perry County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wingate
    • Richton
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
  • Forrest County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Oak Grove, with the one closest to Oak Grove listed first.
    • Brooklyn
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
    • McLaurin
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
      • McLaurin is located in Forrest County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for McLaurin
    • Carnes
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
      • Carnes is located in Forrest County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Carnes
    • Goodluck
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
      • Goodluck is located in Forrest County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Goodluck
    • Hattiesburg
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Petal
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Petal is located in Forrest County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Petal
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 10,692 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Petal <1>
  • George County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Oak Grove, with the one closest to Oak Grove listed first.
    • Bexley
      (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
      • Bexley is located in George County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bexley
    • Lucedale
      (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
  • Greene County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Oak Grove, with the one closest to Oak Grove listed first.
    • McLain
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
      • McLain is located in Greene County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for McLain
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 430 people
    • Hillman
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
      • Hillman is located in Greene County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hillman
    • Avera
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
      • Avera is located in Greene County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Avera
    • Bothwell
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
      • Bothwell is located in Greene County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bothwell
    • Leakesville
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
    • Carson City
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Carson City is located in Greene County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Carson City
    • Clark
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Clark is located in Greene County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clark
  • Harrison County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Oak Grove, with the one closest to Oak Grove listed first.
    • Howison
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
      • Howison is located in Harrison County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Howison
    • Saucier
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
  • Lamar County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Oak Grove, with the one closest to Oak Grove listed first.
    • Purvis
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
    • Lumberton
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
    • Wells Town
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
      • Wells Town is located in Lamar County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wells Town
    • West Hattiesburg
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
      • West Hattiesburg is located in Lamar County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West Hattiesburg
  • Stone County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Oak Grove, with the one closest to Oak Grove listed first.
    • Wiggins
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
    • McHenry
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
      • McHenry is located in Stone County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for McHenry
    • Smith Town
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
      • Smith Town is located in Stone County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Smith Town

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

Cemeteries Near Oak Grove ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Oak Grove.

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 Oak Grove - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • Breland Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
  • Thomas Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
  • Riley Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
  • Howard - Breland Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Herring Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
  • New York Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Hinton Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
  • Red Hill Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
  • Fairley Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
  • Cochran Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
  • Mixon Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
  • Fairley Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
  • Continue List   (286 more) ...
    • Miles Cemetery
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
    • Sweetwater Cemetery
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Mt. Nebo Cemetery
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)

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.<2>

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

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

  • Leaf
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
    • Leaf is located in Greene County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Leaf
  • Avera
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Avera is located in Greene County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Avera
  • Leakesville
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
  • Airey
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
    • Airey is located in Harrison County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Airey
  • Hattiesburg
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)

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

Newspapers Published in Oak Grove ...

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 38 newspapers that have been published in the area around Oak Grove.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Oak Grove, there are papers which were published within 28 miles [45.1 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Oak Grove.

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 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 Oak Grove:

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