RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of North Carolina >> Duplin County >> Hills Crossroads >> Genealogy HelperIndex...










Learn About
The Commemorative
Quarter for
North Carolina

The Commemorative Quarter for North Carolina





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 Hills Crossroads (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 Hills Crossroads. 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 Hills Crossroads ...

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 have occurred.

  • A typical abbreviation for Hills Crossroads: Hills Xrds.
  • While the name of this community is Hills Crossroads, be aware that it's the common practice of mapmakers to remove the apostrophe from possessive names<1>. So Hills Crossroads may originally have been Hill's Crossroads.

    Sometimes the trailing 's' might be dropped altogether, in which case Hills Crossroads might be written as Hill Crossroads.

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.

Hills Crossroads is located in Duplin County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Duplin County: Jones, Lenoir, Onslow, Pender, Sampson & Wayne.

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

  • Duplin County     (The home county of Hills Crossroads)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Hills Crossroads, with the one closest to Hills Crossroads listed first.
    • Blizzards Crossroads
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Blizzards Crossroads have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Blizzards Crossroads
      • Blizzards Crossroads is located in Duplin County
    • Summerlins Crossroads
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
    • Scotts Store
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Red Hill
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Herrings Crossroads
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Outlaws Bridge
      (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
    • Pleasant Grove
      (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Pleasant Grove have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pleasant Grove
      • Pleasant Grove is located in Duplin County
    • Westbrook Crossroads
      (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Beautancus
      (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Albertson
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Friendship
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Drummersville
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Craven County
  • Greene County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Hills Crossroads, with the one closest to Hills Crossroads listed first.
    • Jason
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Glenfield
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Snow Hill
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Hookerton
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Hookerton have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hookerton
      • Hookerton is located in Greene County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 389 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Hookerton <4>
  • Johnston County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Hills Crossroads, with the one closest to Hills Crossroads listed first.
    • Bentonville
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Harper
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Harper. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harper
      • Harper is located in Johnston County
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Harper
      • From Hills Crossroads to Harper
    • Princeton
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Princeton have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Princeton
      • Princeton is located in Johnston County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,425 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Princeton <4>
    • Rains Crossroads
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Jones County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Hills Crossroads, with the one closest to Hills Crossroads listed first.
    • Hargetts Crossroads
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
    • Pleasant Hill
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
    • Taylors Corner
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
    • Combs Fork
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Combs Fork have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Combs Fork
      • Combs Fork is located in Jones County
    • Shady Grove
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
    • Comfort
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
    • Wise Forks
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
    • Phillips Crossroads
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
    • Sassers Mill
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
    • Pollocks
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
  • Lenoir County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Hills Crossroads, with the one closest to Hills Crossroads listed first.
    • Pink Hill
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Pink Hill have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pink Hill
      • Pink Hill is located in Lenoir County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 511 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Pink Hill <4>
    • Deep Run
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
    • La Grange
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for La Grange have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for La Grange
      • La Grange is located in Lenoir County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,614 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for La Grange <4>
    • Albrittons
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
    • Fields
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Fields. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fields
      • Fields is located in Lenoir County
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Fields
      • From Hills Crossroads to Fields
    • Loftins Crossroads
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
    • Kinston
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
    • Kinfield Village
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Kinfield Village have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kinfield Village
      • Kinfield Village is located in Lenoir County
    • Graingers
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Onslow County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Hills Crossroads, with the one closest to Hills Crossroads listed first.
    • Richlands
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Richlands have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Richlands
      • Richlands is located in Onslow County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,718 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Richlands <4>
    • Catherine Lake
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Pender County
    • Willard
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Willard have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Willard
      • Willard is located in Pender County
  • Sampson County
  • Wayne County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Hills Crossroads, with the one closest to Hills Crossroads listed first.
    • Seven Springs
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Mount Olive
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Dudley
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Dudley have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dudley
      • Dudley is located in Wayne County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Dudley <4>
    • Walnut Creek
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Walnut Creek have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Walnut Creek
      • Walnut Creek is located in Wayne County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 864 people
    • Brogden
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Brogden have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brogden
      • Brogden is located in Wayne County
    • Elroy
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Elroy have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elroy
      • Elroy is located in Wayne County
    • Mar-Mac Village
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Mar-Mac Village have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mar-Mac Village
      • Mar-Mac Village is located in Wayne County
    • Mar-Mac
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Mar-Mac have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mar-Mac
      • Mar-Mac is located in Wayne County
    • Berkeley Village
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Berkeley Village have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Berkeley Village
      • Berkeley Village is located in Wayne County
    • Grantham
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Goldsboro
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
    • Raynor Town
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Raynor Town have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Raynor Town
      • Raynor Town is located in Wayne County

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

Cemeteries Near Hills Crossroads ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Hills Crossroads.

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.

If you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our selection of Genealogy Websites (see below).

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Hills Crossroads, with the one closest to Hills Crossroads 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.<7>

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

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

  • Outlaws Bridge
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
  • Albertson
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
  • Leon
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Leon have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Leon
    • Leon is located in Duplin County
  • Seven Springs
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Mount Olive
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Bowdens
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Bowdens have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bowdens
    • Bowdens is located in Duplin County
  • Kenansville
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Kenansville have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kenansville
    • Kenansville is located in Duplin County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 850 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Kenansville <4>
  • Sarecta
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Sarecta. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sarecta
    • Sarecta is located in Duplin County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Sarecta
    • From Hills Crossroads to Sarecta
  • Resaca
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
  • Strabane
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Strabane have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Strabane
    • Strabane is located in Lenoir County
  • Faison
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Faison have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Faison
    • Faison is located in Duplin County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 959 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Faison <4>
  • Warsaw
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Warsaw have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Warsaw
    • Warsaw is located in Duplin County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 3,084 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Warsaw <4>
  • Continue List   (14 more) ...
    • Dudley
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Dudley have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dudley
      • Dudley is located in Wayne County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Dudley <4>
    • Deep Run
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
    • Turkey
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Turkey have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Turkey
      • Turkey is located in Sampson County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 292 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Turkey <4>

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

Newspapers Published in Hills Crossroads ...

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 62 newspapers that have been published in the area around Hills Crossroads.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Hills Crossroads, there are papers which were published within 20 miles [32.2 km]<5>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Hills Crossroads.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we 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 Hills Crossroads:

Unfortunately, we don't know of a website for Hills Crossroads. If you can help, please contact us through our Feedback Page.

The official website for Duplin County: www.duplincounty.org/

The official website for State of North Carolina: https://www.nc.gov/

Footnotes ...

<1>It's generally believed that possessive apostrophes are removed to prevent confusion on maps where the apostrophe may be confused with a cartographic symbol. While this is generally true, it's not uncommon to find possessive apostrophes in administrative names (such as towns or counties).
<2>The location has been supplied by the Geographic Names Information System - which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While these values should be definitive, we found that accuracy can vary and you should double-check the location if accuracy is required.
<3>An 'estimated' location is one where we have been given GPS coordinates, but are unable to verify the accuracy of those coordinates. That said, we have some confidence that we have placed the marker near the actual location. A typical reason for being unable to verify a location is that it might be on private property or maybe historic and gone without an obvious trace.
<4>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<5>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- Hills Crossroads) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Hills Crossroads. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 35.1138, Longitude: -77.9421       In this case, the coordinates for Hills Crossroads have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>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.
<7>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 Hills Crossroads, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

Copyright 2025
All Rights Reserved

Thank you for visiting our website.

In closing, please keep in mind that we can not guarantee the accuracy or timeliness of the information on this website, so use with care. We encourage you to double-check the information that is critical to you.

If you've found an error or have additional information that you would like to share, please don't hesitate to write: Click here to contact us.

This page was last modified/updated: 28 Apr 2025