Tennessee Gazetteers

A gazetteer is a list and description of places, such as villages, towns, cities, and may also mention neighborhoods, cemeteries, sizes of population, rivers and mountains, and other geographical features. It can be used to locate the places where your family lived. It usually includes only the names of places that existed at the time the gazetteer was published. The place names are generally listed in alphabetical order, similar to a dictionary. Guides to place names in Tennessee include:


 * Fullerton, Ralph O. Place Names of Tennessee. Nashville, Tennessee: Tennessee Department of Conservation, Division of Geology, 1974. (Family History Library book 976.8 E2f; film 928174 item 2.) The record is arranged alphabetically by county, then alphabetically by place. Included is the quadrangle of each place.

List of post offices in Tennessee and their dates of operation will be helpful to genealogists and historians hoping to identify the location of a particular place name. Tennessee State Archives has a list of the post offices. Users should be aware that the county listed is the county in which the post office was located at the time of its creation. Later changes in county boundary lines may have affected the home county of that post office. This list is based on records at National Archives listing postmaster appointments from 1832 to 1971 (see National Archives microfilm publications M1131 and M841). 
 * Easton Morris’ Tennessee Gazetteer 1834 and Matthew Rhea’s Map of the State of Tennessee 1832. 1834. Reprint, Nashville, Tennessee: Gazetteer Press, 1971. (Family History Library book 976.8 E5m.) The record contains a general description of the state, an alphabetical list of places, a map, and a list of government officials.
 * Tennessee Geographic Names: Alphabetical Listing.Reston, Virginia: U.S. Geological Survey, 1985. (Family History Library book 976.8 E2u.) The record includes the name of each place, type of feature, county, coordinates, elevation in feet, source, and map.

 For more place-finding aids for Tennessee, see the “Maps” section of this outline. The United States research article contains additional sources and information on gazetteers. Tennessee gazetteers are listed in the Place Search of the Family History Library Catalog under:

TENNESSEE - GAZETTEERS

TENNESSEE - HISTORY

TENNESSEE - NAMES, GEOGRAPHICAL