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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 Beartown (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 Beartown. 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 and doctors 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.

Beartown is located in Sullivan County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Sullivan County: Carter, Hawkins, Johnson, Washington, Bristol City (VA), Scott (VA) & Washington (VA).

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

  • Sullivan County     (The home county of Beartown)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Beartown, with the one closest to Beartown listed first.
    • Morrison City
      (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
      • Morrison City is located in Sullivan County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Morrison City
    • Cherokee Village
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Cherokee Village is located in Sullivan County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cherokee Village
    • Horace ‑ Historic
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
      • Horace is located in Sullivan County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Horace
    • Borden Village
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
      • Borden Village is located in Sullivan County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Borden Village
    • Kingsport
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Bloomingdale
      (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
    • Beechwood Village
      (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
      • Beechwood Village is located in Sullivan County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Beechwood Village
    • Orebank
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
    • Colonial Heights
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Rock City
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
      • Rock City is located in Sullivan County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rock City
    • Kendrick Creek ‑ Historic
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Fordtown
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Blair Gap
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
      • Blair Gap is located in Sullivan County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Blair Gap
      • Estimated population in 2014: 1,870 people
  • Carter County
  • Greene County
  • Hancock County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Beartown, with the one closest to Beartown listed first.
    • Willis
      (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
      • Willis is located in Hancock County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Willis
      • Estimated population in 2014: 387 people
    • Kyles Ford
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
  • Hawkins County
  • Unicoi County
  • Washington County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Beartown, with the one closest to Beartown listed first.
    • Fall Branch
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
    • Spurgeon
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Harmony
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
    • Wheelocktown ‑ Historic
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
    • Gray
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Oak Grove
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Oak Grove is located in Washington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oak Grove
    • Locust Mount
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
    • Ducktown
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
      • Ducktown is located in Washington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ducktown
      • Estimated population in 2014: 457 people
    • Flourville
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Big Sandy
      (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
      • Big Sandy is located in Washington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Big Sandy
      • Estimated population in 2014: 542 people
    • Bowmantown
      (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
    • Austin Village
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
      • Austin Village is located in Washington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Austin Village
    • Camelot Two
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
      • Camelot Two is located in Washington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Camelot Two
      • Estimated population in 2014: 3,582 people
  • Harlan County (KY)
    • Holmes Mill
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Holmes Mill is located in Harlan County (KY)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Holmes Mill

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

Cemeteries Near Beartown ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Beartown.

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

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

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

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

  • Rotherwood
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
  • Solitude ‑ Historic
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Kingsport
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
  • Horace ‑ Historic
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Horace is located in Sullivan County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Horace
  • Butterfly ‑ Historic
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Butterfly is located in Sullivan County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Butterfly
  • Eden Ridge ‑ Historic
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Eden Ridge is located in Sullivan County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eden Ridge
  • Bloomingdale
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
  • Cloverbottom ‑ Historic
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
    • Cloverbottom is located in Sullivan County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cloverbottom
  • Church Hill
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
  • Hemlock
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Hemlock is located in Sullivan County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hemlock
  • Orebank
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
  • Arcadia
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
    • Arcadia is located in Sullivan County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Arcadia
  • Continue List   (14 more) ...

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

Newspapers Published in Beartown ...

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 12 newspapers that have been published in the area around Beartown.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Beartown, there are papers which were published within 3 miles [4.8 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Beartown.

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 Beartown:

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 Beartown, 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- Beartown) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.