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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 Amaya (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 Amaya. 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.

Name Variations for Amaya ...

When searching records, keep in mind that names and their spelling can change over time. Our sources include documents like maps, railroad schedules, Travel, Express and Shipping Guides. Many of these documents date from the 1800's and it's common to find spelling differences.

Although we can't give a definitive list, hopefully the following will give you a feel for the variations that might have occurred.

Amaya has also been known as: Amaya Colonia.

If you have information about these names (such as the reason for the change, date of change, the origin of the name), please Contact Us.

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 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.

Amaya is located in Zavala County.

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 Zavala County: Dimmit, Frio, Kinney, La Salle, Maverick, Medina & Uvalde.

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

  • Zavala County     (The home county of Amaya)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Amaya, with the one closest to Amaya listed first.
    • Las Colonias
      (Less than 2 miles to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Las Colonias have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Las Colonias
      • Las Colonias is located in Zavala County
    • Crystal City
      (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Crystal City have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crystal City
      • Crystal City is located in Zavala County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 7,175 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Crystal City <2>
    • Chula Vista - River Spur
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
    • La Pryor
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for La Pryor have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for La Pryor
      • La Pryor is located in Zavala County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for La Pryor <2>
    • Batesville
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
  • Dimmit County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Amaya, with the one closest to Amaya listed first.
    • Carrizo Springs
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
    • Brundage
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Brundage have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brundage
      • Brundage is located in Dimmit County
    • Carrizo Hill
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Carrizo Hill
      • Carrizo Hill is located in Dimmit County
    • Asherton
      (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
    • Big Wells
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Big Wells have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Big Wells
      • Big Wells is located in Dimmit County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 690 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Big Wells <2>
    • Catarina
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)

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

Newspapers Published in Amaya ...

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 5 newspapers that have been published in the area around Amaya.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Amaya, there are papers which were published within 18 miles [29 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Amaya.

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 helpful 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 Amaya:

Cemeteries Near Amaya ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Amaya.

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 Amaya covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

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

  • Benito Juarez Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
  • Juarez Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Juarez Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Juarez Cemetery
  • Edgewood Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
  • Vivian Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Vivian Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • The Vivian Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Pendencia Creek Cemetery
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Vivian Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #7418 <4>
  • Cometa Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
  • Loma Vista Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
  • Sunset Hills Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
  • Big Wells Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Big Wells Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Big Wells Cemetery
  • St. Michaels Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Michaels Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Michaels Cemetery
  • Edgewood - Woodlawn Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
  • St. Patrick Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)

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>

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

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

  • Carrizo Springs
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
  • Batesville
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)

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

Unfortunately, we don't know of a website for Amaya. If you can help, please contact us through our Feedback Page.

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 '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- Amaya) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Amaya. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 28.7103, Longitude: -99.8353       In this case, the coordinates for Amaya have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<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 Amaya, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.









 

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This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024