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The Commemorative Quarter for Texas





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 Alpine (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 Alpine. 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 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.

Alpine is located in Brewster County and is the County Seat.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Brewster County: Jeff Davis, Pecos, Presidio & Terrell.

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

  • Brewster County     (The home county of Alpine)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Alpine, with the one closest to Alpine listed first.
    • Lenox
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Lenox have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lenox
      • Lenox is located in Brewster County
    • Marathon
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Jeff Davis County
  • Presidio County
    • Marfa
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Marfa
      • Marfa is located in Presidio County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,591 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Marfa <2>
  • San Patricio County
    • Paisano ‑ Historic
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Paisano
      • Paisano is located in San Patricio County

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Alpine ...

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 25 newspapers that have been published in the area around Alpine.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Alpine. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Alpine and those printed in the larger area surrounding Alpine.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 21 miles [33.8 km]<3> of Alpine.

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 Alpine:

Cemeteries Near Alpine ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Alpine.

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.

If you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our selection of Genealogy Websites (see below).

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

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

  • Elm Grove Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Elm Grove Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located outside and to the east of Alpine.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Elm Grove Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #3425 <4>
  • Holy Angels Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
  • Paisano Baptist Encampment Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Hillcrest Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Hillcrest Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Hillcrest Cemetery
  • St. Joseph Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Joseph Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Joseph Cemetery
  • Pioneer Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Pioneer Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Pioneer Cemetery
  • Marathon Cemetery
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)

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.<5>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Alpine had a population of 396 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Alpine had a population of 6,036 people.

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

  • Toronto
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Toronto have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Toronto
    • Toronto is located in Brewster County
  • Paisano ‑ Historic
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Paisano
    • Paisano is located in San Patricio County
  • Altuda
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Altuda have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Altuda
    • Altuda is located in Brewster County
  • Nopal
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Nopal have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nopal
    • Nopal is located in Presidio County
  • Lenox
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Lenox have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lenox
    • Lenox is located in Brewster County
  • Fort Davis
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
  • Marfa
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Marfa
    • Marfa is located in Presidio County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,591 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Marfa <2>
  • Marathon
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)

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

The official website for Alpine: www.ci.alpine.tx.us/

The official website for State of Texas: https://texas.gov/

Footnotes ...

<1>The location has been supplied by the Geographic Names Information System - which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While these values should be definitive, we found that accuracy can vary and you should double-check the location if accuracy is required.
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<3>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Alpine) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Alpine. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 30.3636, Longitude: -103.6637    
<4>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.
<5>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 Alpine, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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In closing, please keep in mind that we can not guarantee the accuracy or timeliness of the information on this website, so use with care. We encourage you to double-check the information that is critical to you.

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This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024