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 Brays Village East (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 Brays Village East. 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 Brays Village East ...
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.
- A typical abbreviation for Brays Village East: Brays Vlg. East (in Canada, 'Vlge.' is the more common abbreviation.)
- While the name of this community is Brays Village East, be aware that it's the common practice of mapmakers to remove the apostrophe from possessive names<1>. So Brays Village East may originally have been Bray's Village East.
Sometimes the trailing 's' might be dropped altogether, in which case Brays Village East might be written as Bray Village East.
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 southwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors were in the next county to the west. 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 west 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.
Brays Village East is located in Harris 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 Harris County: Brazoria, Chambers, Fort Bend, Galveston, Liberty, Montgomery & Waller.
Below are the counties that are near Brays Village East. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Brays Village East:
- Harris County (The home county of Brays Village East)
- The following are listed by their distance from Brays Village East, with the one closest to Brays Village East listed first.
- Alief
(Less than 2 miles to the west)
- Ashford Village
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
- Ashford Village is located in Harris County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ashford Village
- Buckner Haven
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
- Buckner Haven is located in Harris County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Buckner Haven
- Catalina Village
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
- Catalina Village is located in Harris County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Catalina Village
- Westpark Village
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
- Westpark Village is located in Harris County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Westpark Village
- Bunker Hill Village
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
- Bunker Hill Village is located in Harris County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bunker Hill Village
- Population from the 2020 Census: 3,901 people
- Piney Point Village
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
- Piney Point Village is located in Harris County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Piney Point Village
- Population from the 2020 Census: 3,416 people
- Piney Point Village has also been known as:
- Piney Point
- Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Piney Point Village <2>
- Parkway Villages
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
- Parkway Villages is located in Harris County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Parkway Villages
- Hedwig Village
(5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
- Hedwig Village is located in Harris County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hedwig Village
- Population from the 2020 Census: 2,600 people
- Hunters Creek Village
(5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
- Hunters Creek Village is located in Harris County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hunters Creek Village
- Population from the 2020 Census: 4,824 people
- Bellaire
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
- City of Spring Valley Village
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
- Addicks
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
- Addicks is located in Harris County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Addicks
- Austin County
- The following are listed by their distance from Brays Village East, with the one closest to Brays Village East listed first.
- Brazos Country
(28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
- Brazos Country is located in Austin County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brazos Country
- Population from the 2020 Census: 472 people
- Wallis
(30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
- Brazoria County
- The following are listed by their distance from Brays Village East, with the one closest to Brays Village East listed first.
- Brookside Village
(17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
- Fairway Village
(17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
- Fairway Village is located in Brazoria County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fairway Village
- West Oaks Village
(18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
- West Oaks Village is located in Brazoria County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West Oaks Village
- Iowa Colony
(19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
- Iowa Colony is located in Brazoria County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Iowa Colony
- Population from the 2020 Census: 4,888 people
- Pearland
(19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
- Manvel
(20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
- Westwood Village
(20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
- Westwood Village is located in Brazoria County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Westwood Village
- Woodcreek
(22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
- Woodcreek is located in Brazoria County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Woodcreek
- Sandy Point
(23 miles [37 km] to the south)
- Sandy Point is located in Brazoria County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sandy Point
- Population from the 2020 Census: 238 people
- Lochridge
(24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
- Lochridge is located in Brazoria County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lochridge
- Rosharon
(25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
- Alvin
(27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
- Bonney
(28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
- Bonney is located in Brazoria County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bonney
- Population from the 2020 Census: 380 people
- Fort Bend County
- The following are listed by their distance from Brays Village East, with the one closest to Brays Village East listed first.
- Meadows Place
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
- Meadows Place is located in Fort Bend County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Meadows Place
- Population from the 2020 Census: 4,813 people
- Meadows
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
- Meadows is located in Fort Bend County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Meadows
- Mission Bend
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
- Mission Bend is located in Fort Bend County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mission Bend
- Missouri City Estates
(5 miles [8 km] to the south)
- Missouri City Estates is located in Fort Bend County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Missouri City Estates
- Town West
(5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
- Town West is located in Fort Bend County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Town West
- Stafford
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
- Fifth Street
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
- Fifth Street is located in Fort Bend County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fifth Street
- Clodine
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
- West Oaks Village
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
- West Oaks Village is located in Fort Bend County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West Oaks Village
- Sugar Land
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
- First Colony
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
- First Colony is located in Fort Bend County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for First Colony
- Dewalt
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
- Dewalt is located in Fort Bend County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dewalt
- Missouri City
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
- Galveston County
- The following are listed by their distance from Brays Village East, with the one closest to Brays Village East listed first.
- Quaker Village
(25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
- Quaker Village is located in Galveston County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Quaker Village
- Carmel Village
(26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
- Carmel Village is located in Galveston County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Carmel Village
- Friendswood
(26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
- Parkwood Village
(26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
- Parkwood Village is located in Galveston County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Parkwood Village
- Waller County
- The following are listed by their distance from Brays Village East, with the one closest to Brays Village East listed first.
- Brookshire
(23 miles [37 km] to the west)
- Pattison
(26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
- Clemons
(29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
- Clemons is located in Waller County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clemons
For an expanded list of the communities that are closest to Brays Village East, see our County-by-County Page for Brays Village East.
Cemeteries Near Brays Village East ...
Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Brays Village East.
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 Brays Village East - one of the links might be able to help.
If not found below, our Cemetery List for Brays Village East covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.
The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Brays Village East, with the one closest to Brays Village East listed first.
- Alief Cemetery
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
- Riceville Cemetery
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
- Emanuel Memorial Park
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
- Addicks Cemetery
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
- Czech Moravian Brethren Cemetery
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
- Forest Park - Westheimer Cemetery
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Forest Park - Westheimer Cemetery
- To give a relative sense of its location, the Forest Park - Westheimer Cemetery is a very large cemetery that is located in Houston.
- The Forest Park - Westheimer Cemetery has also been known as:
- Forest Park West Cemetery
- Forest Park Cemetery
- Forest Park West Cemetery
- Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #162130 <3>
- Memorial Oaks Cemetery
(5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
- Cementerio San Isidro Cemetery
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
- New Hope Cemetery
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
- Woodlawn Cemetery
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
- Beth El Cemetery
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
- Bear Creek Methodist Cemetery
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
- Continue List (145 more) ...
- Baker Cemetery
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
- New Home Cemetery
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
- College Memorial Park
(10 miles [16.1 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.<4>
While we didn't find Brays Village East in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Brays Village East.
These communities are listed based on their distance from Brays Village East, with the one closest to Brays Village East listed first.
- Jeanetta
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
- Jeanetta is located in Harris County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jeanetta
- Piney Point Village
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
- Piney Point Village is located in Harris County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Piney Point Village
- Population from the 2020 Census: 3,416 people
- Piney Point Village has also been known as:
- Piney Point
- Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Piney Point Village <2>
- Stafford
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
- Addicks
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
- Addicks is located in Harris County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Addicks
- Clodine
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
- Sugar Land
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
- Pierce Junction
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
- Pierce Junction is located in Harris County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pierce Junction
- Harlem
(11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
- Harlem is located in Fort Bend County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harlem
- Westfield
(11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
- Westfield is located in Harris County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Westfield
- Houston
(13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
- Richmond
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
- Crabb
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
- Crabb is located in Fort Bend County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crabb
- Continue List (14 more) ...
- Thompsons
(15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
- Duke
(15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
- Duke is located in Fort Bend County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Duke
- Arcola Junction
(15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
- Arcola Junction is located in Fort Bend County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Arcola Junction
We've also created an expanded list of communities that existed in the 1890's and were located in the area around Brays Village East. See our List of 1890's Communities around Brays Village East.
Newspapers Published in Brays Village East ...
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 3 newspapers that have been published in the area around Brays Village East.
Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Brays Village East, there are papers which were published within 8 miles [12.9 km]<5>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Brays Village East.
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 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 Brays Village East:
- Websites specific to Texas
- Pages specific to Harris County
- Genealogy information for nearby counties
- Austin County
- Brazoria County
- Fort Bend County
- Galveston County
- Waller County
- Cemetery Information and Directories for Texas
Footnotes ...
| <1> | It's generally believed that possessive apostrophes are removed to prevent confusion on maps where the apostrophe may be confused with a cartographic symbol. While this is generally true, it's not uncommon to find possessive apostrophes in administrative names (such as towns or counties). |
| <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 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 Brays Village East, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy. |
| <5> | Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Brays Village East) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'. |