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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 Speed (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 Speed. 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 doctors and 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.

Speed is located in Edgecombe 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 Edgecombe County: Halifax, Martin, Nash, Pitt & Wilson.

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

  • Edgecombe County     (The home county of Speed)
  • Bertie County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Speed, with the one closest to Speed listed first.
    • Lewiston Woodville
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
      • Lewiston Woodville is located in Bertie County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lewiston Woodville
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 473 people
    • Kelford
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
      • Kelford is located in Bertie County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kelford
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 217 people
    • Roxobel
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Drew
      (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
    • Aulander
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Aulander is located in Bertie County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Aulander
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 763 people
    • Windsor
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
    • Hexlena
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Askewville
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
      • Askewville is located in Bertie County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Askewville
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 216 people
  • Greene County
  • Halifax County
  • Hertford County
  • Martin County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Speed, with the one closest to Speed listed first.
    • Oak City
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
    • Hassell
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Parmele
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Parmele is located in Martin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Parmele
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 253 people
    • Hamilton
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
    • Gold Point
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Robersonville
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Everetts
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Bear Grass
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
      • Bear Grass is located in Martin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bear Grass
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 65 people
    • Williamston
      (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
  • Nash County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Speed, with the one closest to Speed listed first.
    • Taylor Crossroads
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
    • North Green
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
      • North Green is located in Nash County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Green
    • Drake
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
      • Drake is located in Nash County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Drake
    • Gold Rock
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
    • Hickory
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Ashburk
      (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
      • Ashburk is located in Nash County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ashburk
    • Dortches
      (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
      • Dortches is located in Nash County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dortches
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 964 people
    • Halifax Crossing
      (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
      • Halifax Crossing is located in Nash County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Halifax Crossing
    • Easonburg
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
      • Easonburg is located in Nash County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Easonburg
    • Joyners Crossing
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
      • Joyners Crossing is located in Nash County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Joyners Crossing
    • Westry
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
    • Langley Crossroads
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
      • Langley Crossroads is located in Nash County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Langley Crossroads
  • Northampton County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Speed, with the one closest to Speed listed first.
    • Rich Square
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Eagletown
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Lasker
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
      • Lasker is located in Northampton County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lasker
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 106 people
    • Woodland
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Jackson
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
    • Potecasi
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
  • Pitt County
  • Wilson County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Speed, with the one closest to Speed listed first.
    • Elm City
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Saratoga
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Eastwood
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Spring Lake
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Spring Lake is located in Wilson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spring Lake

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

Cemeteries Near Speed ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Speed.

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

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

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

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

  • Coakley
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
  • Hobgood
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Hobgood is located in Halifax County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hobgood
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 315 people
  • Lawrence
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
  • Tarboro
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Conoho
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
    • Conoho is located in Martin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Conoho
  • Leggett
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
  • Mildred
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
    • Mildred is located in Edgecombe County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mildred
  • Palmyra
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Conetoe
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
  • Hassell
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Hartsboro
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
  • Bethel
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
  • Continue List   (19 more) ...
    • Scotland Neck
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
    • Parmele
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Parmele is located in Martin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Parmele
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 253 people
    • Penelo
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
      • Penelo is located in Edgecombe County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Penelo

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

Newspapers Published in Speed ...

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 72 newspapers that have been published in the area around Speed.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Speed, there are papers which were published within 22 miles [35.4 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Speed.

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 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 Speed:

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 Speed, 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 obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Speed) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.