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The Commemorative Quarter for South 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 Ella (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 Ella. 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 northwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors were in the next county to the west. 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 west 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.

Ella is located in Lexington County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Lexington County: Aiken, Calhoun, Newberry, Orangeburg, Richland & Saluda.

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

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

Cemeteries Near Ella ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Ella.

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 Ella covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

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

  • Old Lexington Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Old Lexington Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Old Lexington Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Macedonia Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Macedonia Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Macedonia Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Hendrix Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Hendrix Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Hendrix Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Sease Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Sease Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Sease Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Old Salem Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Old Salem Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Old Salem Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Lightner - Christian Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Lightner - Christian Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Lightner - Christian Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • St. Thomas Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Thomas Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Thomas Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • O'Neal Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the O'Neal Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the O'Neal Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Mt. Hebron Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Mt. Hebron Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Mt. Hebron Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Derrick Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Derrick Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Derrick Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Mt. Olivet Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Mt. Olivet Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Mt. Olivet Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Shiloh Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Shiloh Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Shiloh Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Continue List   (333 more) ...
    • Eargle Cemetery
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Eargle Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Eargle Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Bethel Cemetery
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Bethel Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Bethel Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Mt. Moriah Cemetery
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Mt. Moriah Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Mt. Moriah Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.

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>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that in 1895, Ella had a post office and no railroad service.

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

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

Newspapers Published in Ella ...

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 40 newspapers that have been published in the area around Ella.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Ella, there are papers which were published within 14 miles [22.5 km]<5>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Ella.

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 helpful 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 Ella:

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

The official website for Lexington County: www.lex-co.com/

The official website for State of South Carolina: https://sc.gov/

Footnotes ...

<1>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.
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<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>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 Ella, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<5>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Ella) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Ella. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 34.0645, Longitude: -81.4260       In this case, the coordinates for Ella have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).




 

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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.

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This page was last modified/updated: 22 Apr 2025