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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 Reagan (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 Reagan. 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 southeast 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 south.

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 south 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.

Reagan is located in Henderson 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 Henderson County: Carroll, Chester, Decatur, Hardin & Madison.

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

  • Henderson County     (The home county of Reagan)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Reagan, with the one closest to Reagan listed first.
    • Cedar Grove
      (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Sardis
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Rhodes Town
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
      • Rhodes Town is located in Henderson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rhodes Town
    • Chesterfield
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Middle Fork
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Lexington
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
    • Darden
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Darden is located in Henderson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Darden
      • Population from the 2010 Census: 399 people
    • Huron
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
    • White Fern
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Union Cross
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
      • Union Cross is located in Henderson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Union Cross
      • Estimated population in 2014: 10,666 people
    • Parkers Crossroads
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
    • Atkins ‑ Historic
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
      • Atkins is located in Henderson County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Atkins
      • Estimated population in 2014: 13,664 people
  • Benton County
  • Carroll County
  • Chester County
  • Decatur County
  • Hardin County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Reagan, with the one closest to Reagan listed first.
    • Saltillo
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Sibley
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
    • Swift
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Swift is located in Hardin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Swift
      • Estimated population in 2014: 5,874 people
    • Centerview
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
      • Centerview is located in Hardin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Centerview
      • Estimated population in 2014: 244 people
    • Johnson Ford
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
      • Johnson Ford is located in Hardin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Johnson Ford
      • Estimated population in 2014: 65,813 people
    • Crump
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
    • New Town
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
      • New Town is located in Hardin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for New Town
    • Paulks ‑ Historic
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Paulks is located in Hardin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Paulks
    • Belle Meade
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
      • Belle Meade is located in Hardin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Belle Meade
      • Estimated population in 2014: 3,017 people
    • Savannah
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
    • Smiths Fork ‑ Historic
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
      • Smiths Fork is located in Hardin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Smiths Fork
    • Pittsburg Landing Ferry
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
      • Pittsburg Landing Ferry is located in Hardin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pittsburg Landing Ferry
      • Estimated population in 2014: 555 people
  • Madison County
  • McNairy County
  • Perry County
  • Wayne County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Reagan, with the one closest to Reagan listed first.
    • Clifton
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Sorby ‑ Historic
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Sorby is located in Wayne County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sorby

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

Cemeteries Near Reagan ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Reagan.

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

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Reagan, with the one closest to Reagan 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 in 1895, Reagan had a post office and no railroad service.

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

  • Shady Hill
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Shady Hill is located in Henderson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shady Hill
  • Scotts Hill
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
  • Sardis
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Hinson Springs
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Hinson Springs is located in Henderson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hinson Springs
  • Chesterfield
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
  • Middle Fork
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
  • Lexington
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
  • Life
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Life is located in Henderson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Life
  • Jacks Creek
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
  • Milledgeville
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
  • Thurman
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Thurman is located in Decatur County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Thurman
  • Darden
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Darden is located in Henderson County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Darden
    • Population from the 2010 Census: 399 people
  • Continue List   (14 more) ...
    • Dunbar
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
    • Beacon
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Beacon is located in Decatur County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Beacon
    • Huron
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)

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

Newspapers Published in Reagan ...

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 36 newspapers that have been published in the area around Reagan.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Reagan, there are papers which were published within 19 miles [30.6 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Reagan.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we start with the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These professional and volunteer 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 Reagan:

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 Reagan, 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 drawn from Point A (ie- Reagan) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.