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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 Bluetown (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 Bluetown. 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 Bluetown ...

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 occur.

Bluetown has also been known as: Blue Town and Bluetown 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 and 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.

Bluetown is located in Cameron County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Cameron County: Hidalgo & Willacy.

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

  • Cameron County     (The home county of Bluetown)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Bluetown, with the one closest to Bluetown listed first.
    • Bluetown - Iglesia Antigua
      (Less than 2 miles to the west)
    • Longoria Townsite
      (Less than 2 miles to the west)
      • Longoria Townsite is located in Cameron County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Longoria Townsite
      • Longoria Townsite has also been known as:
      • Longoria Townsite Colonia
    • Santa Maria
      (Less than 2 miles to the west)
    • Arroyo Alto
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
      • Arroyo Alto is located in Cameron County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Arroyo Alto
    • Los Indios
      (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
    • Rangerville
      (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
      • Rangerville is located in Cameron County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rangerville
      • Population from the 2010 Census: 289 people
      • Rangerville has also been known as:
      • Rangerville Colonia
    • La Feria
      (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • North La Feria Village
      (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
      • North La Feria Village is located in Cameron County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North La Feria Village
      • North La Feria Village has also been known as:
      • North La Feria Village Colonia
    • Bixby
      (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
    • La Feria North
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Solis
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
      • Solis is located in Cameron County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Solis
      • Solis has also been known as:
      • Solis Colonia
    • Windsong Village
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
      • Windsong Village is located in Cameron County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Windsong Village
      • Windsong Village has also been known as:
      • Windsong Village Colonia
  • Hidalgo County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Bluetown, with the one closest to Bluetown listed first.
    • Rio Rico
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Relampago
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
      • Relampago is located in Hidalgo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Relampago
    • Mercedes
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Progreso Lakes
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
      • Progreso Lakes is located in Hidalgo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Progreso Lakes
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 270 people
    • Progreso
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Heidelberg
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Heidelberg is located in Hidalgo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Heidelberg
    • Llano Grande
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
      • Llano Grande is located in Hidalgo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Llano Grande
    • Indian Hills
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Weslaco
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Villa Verde
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
      • Villa Verde is located in Hidalgo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Villa Verde
      • Villa Verde has also been known as:
      • Villa Verde Colonia
    • Midway South
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Midway Village
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
      • Midway Village is located in Hidalgo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Midway Village
      • Midway Village has also been known as:
      • Midway Village Colonia
  • Willacy County

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

Cemeteries Near Bluetown ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Bluetown.

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

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

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

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 Bluetown in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Bluetown.

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

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

Newspapers Published in Bluetown ...

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 19 newspapers that have been published in the area around Bluetown.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Bluetown, there are papers which were published within 12 miles [19.3 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Bluetown.

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 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 Bluetown:

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