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The Commemorative Quarter for Texas





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 Caledonia (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 Caledonia. 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 northwest 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 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 west 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.

Caledonia is located in Rusk 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 Rusk County: Cherokee, Gregg, Harrison, Nacogdoches, Panola, Shelby & Smith.

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

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

Cemeteries Near Caledonia ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Caledonia.

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Caledonia, with the one closest to Caledonia 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.<6>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Caledonia had a population of 42 people in 1895 with a post office and no railroad service.

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

  • Lawsonville
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Lawsonville have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lawsonville
    • Lawsonville is located in Rusk County
  • Garrison
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
  • Timpson
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Timpson have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Timpson
    • Timpson is located in Shelby County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,130 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Timpson <1>
  • Fitze
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Fitze. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fitze
    • Fitze is located in Nacogdoches County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Fitze
    • From Caledonia to Fitze
  • Mount Enterprise
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
  • Long Branch
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
  • Minden
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Minden have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Minden
    • Minden is located in Rusk County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Minden <1>
  • Pinehill
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
  • Huber
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Huber have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Huber
    • Huber is located in Shelby County
  • Fair Play
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Fair Play have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fair Play
    • Fair Play is located in Panola County
  • Linn Flat
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Linn Flat have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Linn Flat
    • Linn Flat is located in Nacogdoches County
  • Appleby
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
  • Continue List   (14 more) ...
    • Tenaha
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
    • Delray
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Delray. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Delray
      • Delray is located in Panola County
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Delray
      • From Caledonia to Delray
    • Woods
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Woods. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Woods
      • Woods is located in Panola County
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Woods
      • From Caledonia to Woods

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

Newspapers Published in Caledonia ...

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 59 newspapers that have been published in the area around Caledonia.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Caledonia, there are papers which were published within 28 miles [45.1 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Caledonia.

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 Caledonia:

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

The official website for State of Texas: https://texas.gov/

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 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.
<3>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.
<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- Caledonia) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Caledonia. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 31.9241, Longitude: -94.5270    
<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>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 Caledonia, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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In closing, please keep in mind that we can not guarantee the accuracy or timeliness of the information on this website, so use with care. We encourage you to double-check the information that is critical to you.

If you've found an error or have additional information that you would like to share, please don't hesitate to write: Click here to contact us.

This page was last modified/updated: 29 Apr 2025