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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 Sand Switch (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 Sand Switch. 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 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 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.

Sand Switch 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 Sand Switch. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Sand Switch:

  • Franklin County     (The home county of Sand Switch)
  • Bedford County
  • Coffee County
  • Grundy County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Sand Switch, with the one closest to Sand Switch listed first.
    • Monteagle
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
    • Pelham
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Tracy City
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
    • Sartain Springs
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
      • Sartain Springs is located in Grundy County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sartain Springs
      • Estimated population in 2014: 380 people
    • Lankford Town
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
      • Lankford Town is located in Grundy County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lankford Town
    • White City
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
      • White City is located in Grundy County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for White City
    • Coalmont
      (12 miles [19.3 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
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Gruetli
      (16 miles [25.7 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
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Palmer
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Beersheba Springs
      (20 miles [32.2 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
  • Hamilton County
  • Lincoln County
    • Gattistown
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
      • Gattistown is located in Lincoln County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gattistown
      • Estimated population in 2014: 4,158 people
  • Marion County
  • Moore County
  • Sequatchie County
  • Warren County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Sand Switch, with the one closest to Sand Switch listed first.
    • Viola
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
    • Morrison
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
    • Smyrna
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
      • Smyrna is located in Warren County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Smyrna
      • Estimated population in 2014: 45,274 people
  • Jackson County (AL)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Sand Switch, with the one closest to Sand Switch listed first.
    • Copenhagen ‑ Historic
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
      • Copenhagen is located in Jackson County (AL)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Copenhagen
    • Bridgeport
      (20 miles [32.2 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>
    • Long Island
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Browns Valley ‑ Historic
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
      • Browns Valley is located in Jackson County (AL)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Browns Valley
    • Haynes Crossing
      (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
    • Narrows ‑ Historic
      (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
      • Narrows is located in Jackson County (AL)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Narrows
    • Bryant
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
    • New Town
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
      • New Town is located in Jackson County (AL)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for New Town
    • Rash
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
    • Stevenson
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
    • Greerton ‑ Historic
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
      • Greerton is located in Jackson County (AL)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Greerton
    • Hytop
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
      • Hytop is located in Jackson County (AL)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hytop
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 412 people
    • Francisco
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Dade County (GA)
    • Cole City
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Cole City is located in Dade County (GA)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cole City
      • Population from the 2010 Census: 127 people

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

Cemeteries Near Sand Switch ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Sand Switch.

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 Sand Switch - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • St. Andrews Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
  • Anderson Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
  • Harrison Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
  • Eastern Star Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
  • University Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Monteagle Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
  • Lappin Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
  • Henley Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
  • Gipson Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
  • Dotson Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Long Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Cherry Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Continue List   (826 more) ...
    • St. Marys Cemetery
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • O'Dear Cemetery
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Wise Cemetery
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)

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.<2>

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

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

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

Newspapers Published in Sand Switch ...

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 51 newspapers that have been published in the area around Sand Switch.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Sand Switch, there are papers which were published within 20 miles [32.2 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Sand Switch.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first visit 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 Sand Switch:

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>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 Sand Switch, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<3>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 from Point A (ie- Sand Switch) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.