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A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
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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 Spencer (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 Spencer. 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.

Spencer is located in Rowan 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 Rowan County: Cabarrus, Davidson, Davie, Iredell, Montgomery & Stanly.

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

  • Rowan County     (The home county of Spencer)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Spencer, with the one closest to Spencer listed first.
    • East Spencer
      (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
      • East Spencer is located in Rowan County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for East Spencer
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,556 people
    • Shannon Park
      (Less than 2 miles to the north)
      • Shannon Park is located in Rowan County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shannon Park
    • Yadkin
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Yadkin is located in Rowan County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Yadkin
    • Ellis Crossroads
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
      • Ellis Crossroads is located in Rowan County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ellis Crossroads
    • Eastwood Village
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
      • Eastwood Village is located in Rowan County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eastwood Village
    • Woodbine
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
      • Woodbine is located in Rowan County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Woodbine
    • Salisbury
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Belmont
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
      • Belmont is located in Rowan County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Belmont
    • Forest Hills
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
      • Forest Hills is located in Rowan County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Forest Hills
    • Corbin Hills
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
      • Corbin Hills is located in Rowan County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Corbin Hills
    • Eaman Park
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Eaman Park is located in Rowan County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eaman Park
    • Fairview
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Fairview is located in Rowan County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fairview
  • Cabarrus County
  • Catawba County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Spencer, with the one closest to Spencer listed first.
    • Lake Norman of Catawba
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
    • Monbo
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
      • Monbo is located in Catawba County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Monbo
  • Davidson County
  • Davie County
  • Forsyth County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Spencer, with the one closest to Spencer listed first.
    • Muddy Creek
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
    • Clemmons
      (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
    • Rosemont
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
      • Rosemont is located in Forsyth County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rosemont
    • Ardmore
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
    • Eaglewood
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
      • Eaglewood is located in Forsyth County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eaglewood
    • Lewisville
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
    • Cinnamon Ridge
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
      • Cinnamon Ridge is located in Forsyth County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cinnamon Ridge
    • Cutters Creek
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
      • Cutters Creek is located in Forsyth County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cutters Creek
    • Grapewood
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
      • Grapewood is located in Forsyth County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grapewood
    • Robinhood Forest
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
      • Robinhood Forest is located in Forsyth County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Robinhood Forest
    • Westview
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
      • Westview is located in Forsyth County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Westview
    • Waughtown
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Waughtown is located in Forsyth County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Waughtown
  • Guilford County
  • Iredell County
  • Mecklenburg County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Spencer, with the one closest to Spencer listed first.
    • Davidson
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Cornelius
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Montgomery County
  • Randolph County
  • Stanly County
  • Yadkin County

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

Cemeteries Near Spencer ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Spencer.

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

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Spencer, with the one closest to Spencer 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.<4>

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

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

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

Newspapers Published in Spencer ...

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 76 newspapers that have been published in the area around Spencer.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Spencer, there are papers which were published within 13 miles [20.9 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Spencer.

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 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 Spencer:

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>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or 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- Spencer) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<4>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 Spencer, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.