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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 Liberty (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 Liberty. 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 northeast 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 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 east 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.

Liberty is located in Cherokee County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Cherokee County: Fannin (GA), Union (GA), Clay, Graham, Macon, Monroe (TN) & Polk (TN).

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

  • Cherokee County     (The home county of Liberty)
  • Clay County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Liberty, with the one closest to Liberty listed first.
    • Brasstown
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
    • Pine Log Village
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
      • Pine Log Village is located in Clay County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pine Log Village
    • Warne
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
    • Hayesville
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
  • Graham County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Liberty, with the one closest to Liberty listed first.
    • Lake Santeetlah
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Robbinsville
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Fannin County (GA)
  • Gilmer County (GA)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Liberty, with the one closest to Liberty listed first.
    • Cherry Log
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
    • Santaluca
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
      • Santaluca is located in Gilmer County (GA)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Santaluca
    • White Path
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
      • White Path is located in Gilmer County (GA)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for White Path
      • Estimated population in 2019: 342 people
    • Northcutt
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
      • Northcutt is located in Gilmer County (GA)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Northcutt
      • Population from the 2010 Census: 16,698 people
  • Murray County (GA)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Liberty, with the one closest to Liberty listed first.
    • Tennga
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
    • Cisco
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Gregory
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Gregory is located in Murray County (GA)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gregory
      • Population from the 2010 Census: 7,432 people
    • Temple Grove
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Temple Grove is located in Murray County (GA)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Temple Grove
      • Estimated population in 2019: 4,795 people
  • Towns County (GA)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Liberty, with the one closest to Liberty listed first.
    • Jacksonville
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Young Harris
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Union County (GA)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Liberty, with the one closest to Liberty listed first.
    • Bethlehem
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Canal Lake
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
      • Canal Lake is located in Union County (GA)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Canal Lake
      • Population from the 2010 Census: 23,025 people
    • Youngcane ‑ Historic
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
      • Youngcane is located in Union County (GA)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Youngcane
      • Estimated population in 2019: 1,661 people
    • Blairsville
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Hood ‑ Historic
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Hood is located in Union County (GA)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hood
    • Owltown
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Bradley County (TN)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Liberty, with the one closest to Liberty listed first.
    • Charleston
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Bellefounte
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
  • McMinn County (TN)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Liberty, with the one closest to Liberty listed first.
    • Mecca
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Etowah
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Grady
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
      • Grady is located in McMinn County (TN)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grady
    • Goodsprings
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Nonaburg
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Claxton
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
    • Englewood
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
    • Luskville
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
    • Manila
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Athens
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
      • Athens is located in McMinn County (TN)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Athens
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 14,120 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Athens <1>
    • Calhoun
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Riceville
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
  • Monroe County (TN)
  • Polk County (TN)

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

Cemeteries Near Liberty ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Liberty.

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

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

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

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

  • Wehutty
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
    • Wehutty is located in Cherokee County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wehutty
  • Hiwassee
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Hiwassee is located in Cherokee County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hiwassee
  • Turtletown
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
  • Postell
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
  • Vests
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
  • Ducktown
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
  • Wolf Creek
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Wolf Creek is located in Cherokee County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wolf Creek
  • Hothouse
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Rymers ‑ Historic
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Rymers is located in Polk County (TN)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rymers
  • Ogreeta
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
  • Epperson
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
  • Letitia
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Letitia is located in Cherokee County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Letitia
  • Continue List   (13 more) ...

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

Newspapers Published in Liberty ...

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 20 newspapers that have been published in the area around Liberty.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Liberty, there are papers which were published within 17 miles [27.4 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Liberty.

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 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 Liberty:

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 Liberty, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<4>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 from Point A (ie- Liberty) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.