RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Oklahoma >> Beckham County >> Texola >> Genealogy HelperIndex...

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 Texola (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 Texola. 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 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.

Texola is located in Beckham County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Beckham County: Custer, Greer, Harmon, Kiowa, Roger Mills, Washita, Collingsworth (TX) & Wheeler (TX).

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

  • Beckham County     (The home county of Texola)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Texola, with the one closest to Texola listed first.
    • Erick
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
    • Mayfield
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Sweetwater
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
    • Delhi
      (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
      • Delhi is located in Beckham County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Delhi
    • Sayre
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
      • Sayre is located in Beckham County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sayre
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 4,435 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Sayre <1>
    • Carter
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
  • Greer County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Texola, with the one closest to Texola listed first.
    • Jester
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
      • Jester is located in Greer County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jester
    • Bloomington
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Bloomington is located in Greer County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bloomington
    • Reed
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Reed is located in Greer County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Reed
    • Willow
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Harmon County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Texola, with the one closest to Texola listed first.
    • Vinson
      (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
    • Sandy
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
      • Sandy is located in Harmon County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sandy
  • Roger Mills County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Texola, with the one closest to Texola listed first.
    • Berlin
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
      • Berlin is located in Roger Mills County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Berlin
    • Reydon
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
      • Reydon is located in Roger Mills County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Reydon
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 205 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Reydon <1>
  • Collingsworth County (TX)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Texola, with the one closest to Texola listed first.
    • Samnorwood
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Wellington
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Wellington is located in Collingsworth County (TX)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wellington
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,040 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Wellington <1>
  • Wheeler County (TX)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Texola, with the one closest to Texola listed first.
    • Shamrock
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
      • Shamrock is located in Wheeler County (TX)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shamrock
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,720 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Shamrock <1>
    • Twitty
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
      • Twitty is located in Wheeler County (TX)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Twitty
    • Wheeler
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Wheeler is located in Wheeler County (TX)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wheeler
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,456 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Wheeler <1>
    • Magic City
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
      • Magic City is located in Wheeler County (TX)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Magic City
    • Allison
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
    • Zybach ‑ Historic
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Zybach is located in Wheeler County (TX)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Zybach
    • Briscoe
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)

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

Cemeteries Near Texola ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Texola.

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

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

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

  • Texola Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
  • Davis Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
  • Erick Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
  • Vannerson Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Mayfield Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Salem Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Pioneer Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
  • Center Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Kelton Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
  • Needwood Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
  • Buffalo Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Buffalo Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Buffalo Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located 12 miles [19.3 km]<2> to the northwest of Sayre.
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #98054 <3>
  • Lone Oak Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Continue List   (39 more) ...
    • Mulberry Cemetery
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
    • Brookside Cemetery
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Rock Cemetery
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)

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.<4>

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

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

  • Sweetwater
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
  • Aberdeen
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Aberdeen is located in Collingsworth County (TX)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Aberdeen
  • Delhi
    (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
    • Delhi is located in Beckham County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Delhi
  • Jester
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Jester is located in Greer County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jester
  • Bloomington
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Bloomington is located in Greer County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bloomington
  • Reed
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Reed is located in Greer County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Reed
  • Wellington
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Wellington is located in Collingsworth County (TX)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wellington
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,040 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Wellington <1>

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Texola ...

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 30 newspapers that have been published in the area around Texola.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Texola. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Texola and those printed in the larger area surrounding Texola.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<2> of Texola.

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 Texola:

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>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 from Point A (ie- Texola) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<3>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.
<4>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 Texola, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.