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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 Bald Prairie (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 Bald Prairie. 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 Bald Prairie ...

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.

For example, a typical abbreviation for Bald Prairie: Bald Pr.

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.

Bald Prairie is located in Robertson 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 Robertson County: Brazos, Burleson, Falls, Leon, Limestone, Madison & Milam.

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

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

Cemeteries Near Bald Prairie ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Bald Prairie.

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

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

  • Wesley Chapel Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Wesley Chapel Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Wesley Chapel Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Thompson Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Thompson Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Thompson Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Pace Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Pace Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Pace Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Head Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Head Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Head Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • East Boone Prairie Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the East Boone Prairie Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the East Boone Prairie Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • King - Williams Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
  • Ebenezer Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
  • Holly Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Holly Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Holly Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Whartley Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Whartley Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Whartley Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Seale - Round Prairie Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Seale - Round Prairie Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Seale - Round Prairie Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Kaster Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Kaster Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Kaster Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Bumpus Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Continue List   (204 more) ...
    • Buttrill Cemetery
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Buttrill Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Buttrill Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2686 <5>
    • Easterly Cemetery
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Easterly Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Easterly Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Downs Cemetery
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)

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.<7>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Bald Prairie had a population of 213 people in 1895 with a post office and no railroad service.

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

  • Headsville
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Headsville have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Headsville
    • Headsville is located in Robertson County
  • Petteway
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Petteway have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Petteway
    • Petteway is located in Robertson County
  • Seale
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Seale. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<1>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Seale
    • Seale is located in Robertson County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Seale
    • From Bald Prairie to Seale
  • Oletha
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Oletha have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oletha
    • Oletha is located in Limestone County
  • Marquez
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
  • New Baden
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
  • Nesbitt
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Nesbitt have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nesbitt
    • Nesbitt is located in Robertson County
  • Kosse
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
  • Bremond
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
  • Franklin
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Franklin have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Franklin
    • Franklin is located in Robertson County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,643 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Franklin <2>
  • Thornton
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
  • Concord
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
  • Continue List   (14 more) ...

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

Newspapers Published in Bald Prairie ...

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 45 newspapers that have been published in the area around Bald Prairie.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Bald Prairie, there are papers which were published within 28 miles [45.1 km]<6>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Bald Prairie.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first turn to 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 Bald Prairie:

Footnotes ...

<1>An 'estimated' location is one where we have been given GPS coordinates, but are unable to verify the accuracy of those coordinates. That said, we have some confidence that we have placed the marker near the actual location. A typical reason for being unable to verify a location is that it might be on private property or maybe historic and gone without an obvious trace.
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<3>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.
<4>If we found a location and have questions about the accuracy of our information, we will simply say that the marker is 'in the vicinity'. We are not confident about the location and the position of our marker is only a rough guide. If we have too many doubts about the location, we will not include it in our database.
<5>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.
<6>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- Bald Prairie) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Bald Prairie. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 31.2233, Longitude: -96.4329       In this case, the coordinates for Bald Prairie have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<7>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 Bald Prairie, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.