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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 Byrds (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 Byrds. 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 northeast 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 north.

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 north 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.

Byrds is located in Brown 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 Brown County: Callahan, Coleman, Comanche, Eastland, McCulloch, Mills & San Saba.

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

  • Brown County     (The home county of Byrds)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Byrds, with the one closest to Byrds listed first.
    • Lake Brownwood
      (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
      • Lake Brownwood is located in Brown County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lake Brownwood
    • May
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Cross Cut
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Cross Cut is located in Brown County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cross Cut
    • Fry ‑ Historic
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Fry is located in Brown County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fry
    • Early
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Bangs
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
    • Brownwood
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
    • Blanket
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
    • Ricker ‑ Historic
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Ricker is located in Brown County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ricker
    • Zephyr
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Brookesmith
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
    • Indian Creek
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
      • Indian Creek is located in Brown County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Indian Creek
  • Callahan County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Byrds, with the one closest to Byrds listed first.
    • Cross Plains
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Cottonwood
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
      • Cottonwood is located in Callahan County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cottonwood
    • Rowden
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Rowden is located in Callahan County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rowden
  • Coleman County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Byrds, with the one closest to Byrds listed first.
    • Burkett
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Santa Anna
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Coleman
      (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
    • Trickham
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
      • Trickham is located in Coleman County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Trickham
      • Former name for Trickham:
      • Trick'em
  • Comanche County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Byrds, with the one closest to Byrds listed first.
    • Sidney
      (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
    • Sipe Springs
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
      • Sipe Springs is located in Comanche County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sipe Springs
    • Comanche
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
    • Duster
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Duster is located in Comanche County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Duster
  • Eastland County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Byrds, with the one closest to Byrds listed first.
    • Rising Star
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
    • Okra
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
      • Okra is located in Eastland County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Okra
    • Nimrod ‑ Historic
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
      • Nimrod is located in Eastland County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nimrod
    • Carbon
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Gorman
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Mangum ‑ Historic
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
      • Mangum is located in Eastland County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mangum
  • Mills County
    • Ebony ‑ Historic
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
      • Ebony is located in Mills County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ebony

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

Cemeteries Near Byrds ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Byrds.

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

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

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

  • Lost Creek Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
  • Macedonia Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
  • Panther Creek Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
  • Pleasant Valley Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
  • Roberts Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
  • May Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Smith Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Fairview Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
  • Heflin Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
  • Cross Cut Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Mud Creek Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
  • Routh Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Continue List   (70 more) ...
    • McDaniel Cemetery
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
    • Staley Cemetery
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Pioneer Cemetery
      (13 miles [20.9 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.<3>

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

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

  • Thrifty
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Thrifty is located in Brown County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Thrifty
  • May
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
  • Cross Cut
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Cross Cut is located in Brown County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cross Cut
  • Burkett
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Pioneer
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
    • Pioneer is located in Eastland County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pioneer
  • Rising Star
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
  • Bangs
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
  • Brownwood
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
  • Ricker ‑ Historic
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Ricker is located in Brown County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ricker
  • Blanket
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
  • Cross Plains
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Sidney
    (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
  • Continue List   (13 more) ...
    • Sipe Springs
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
      • Sipe Springs is located in Comanche County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sipe Springs
    • Santa Anna
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Zephyr
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)

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

Newspapers Published in Byrds ...

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 20 newspapers that have been published in the area around Byrds.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Byrds, there are papers which were published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Byrds.

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 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 Byrds:

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