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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 Decherd (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 Decherd. 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 hospitals 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.

Decherd is located in Franklin 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 Franklin County: Jackson (AL), Madison (AL), Coffee, Grundy, Lincoln, Marion & Moore.

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

  • Franklin County     (The home county of Decherd)
  • Bedford County
  • Coffee County
  • Grundy County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Decherd, with the one closest to Decherd listed first.
    • Monteagle
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
    • Pelham
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Sartain Springs
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
      • Sartain Springs is located in Grundy County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sartain Springs
      • Estimated population in 2014: 380 people
    • Tracy City
      (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
    • Lankford Town
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
      • Lankford Town is located in Grundy County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lankford Town
    • White City
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
      • White City is located in Grundy County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for White City
    • Coalmont
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
      • Coalmont is located in Grundy County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Coalmont
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 842 people
    • Altamont
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Gruetli
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
      • Gruetli is located in Grundy County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gruetli
      • Estimated population in 2014: 1,775 people
    • Gruetli - Laager
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Beersheba Springs
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Beersheba Springs is located in Grundy County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Beersheba Springs
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 461 people
    • Palmer
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
  • Lincoln County
  • Marion County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Decherd, with the one closest to Decherd listed first.
    • Comfort
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
    • Orme
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Orme is located in Marion County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Orme
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 107 people
    • Ketchall ‑ Historic
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
      • Ketchall is located in Marion County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ketchall
    • Greentown
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
    • Richard City
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
      • Richard City is located in Marion County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Richard City
    • South Pittsburg
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Kimball
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Jasper
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
    • New Hope
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
      • New Hope is located in Marion County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for New Hope
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,047 people
  • Moore County
  • Warren County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Decherd, with the one closest to Decherd listed first.
    • Viola
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Morrison
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
  • Jackson County (AL)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Decherd, with the one closest to Decherd listed first.
    • Francisco
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
    • Greerton ‑ Historic
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
      • Greerton is located in Jackson County (AL)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Greerton
    • Hytop
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
      • Hytop is located in Jackson County (AL)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hytop
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 412 people
    • Estillfork
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
      • Estillfork is located in Jackson County (AL)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Estillfork
    • Narrows ‑ Historic
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
      • Narrows is located in Jackson County (AL)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Narrows
    • Baileytown
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
    • Beachboro ‑ Historic
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
      • Beachboro is located in Jackson County (AL)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Beachboro
    • Copenhagen ‑ Historic
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Copenhagen is located in Jackson County (AL)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Copenhagen
    • Rash
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Mud Creek ‑ Historic
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
      • Mud Creek is located in Jackson County (AL)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mud Creek
    • Princeton
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
      • Princeton is located in Jackson County (AL)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Princeton
    • Skyline
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
      • Skyline is located in Jackson County (AL)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Skyline
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 835 people
    • Bridgeport
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
      • Bridgeport is located in Jackson County (AL)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bridgeport
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,272 people
      • Former name for Bridgeport:
      • Jonesville
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Bridgeport <1>
  • Madison County (AL)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Decherd, with the one closest to Decherd listed first.
    • Hillsboro
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Hillsboro is located in Madison County (AL)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hillsboro
    • New Market
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)

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

Cemeteries Near Decherd ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Decherd.

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

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Decherd, with the one closest to Decherd 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>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Decherd had a population of 725 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Decherd had a population of 2,372 people.

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

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

Newspapers Published in Decherd ...

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 99 newspapers that have been published in the area around Decherd.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Decherd, there are papers which were published within 18 miles [29 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Decherd.

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 Decherd:

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