RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Texas >> Webb County >> Callaghan >> Genealogy HelperIndex...










Learn About
The Commemorative
Quarter for
Texas

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 Callaghan (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 Callaghan. 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 hospitals 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.

Callaghan is located in Webb 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 Webb County: Dimmit, Duval, Jim Hogg, La Salle, Maverick & Zapata.

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

  • Webb County     (The home county of Callaghan)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Callaghan, with the one closest to Callaghan listed first.
    • Botines
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Botines have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Botines
      • Botines is located in Webb County
    • Ranchos Penitas West
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Ranchos Penitas West have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ranchos Penitas West
      • Ranchos Penitas West is located in Webb County
      • Ranchos Penitas West has also been known as:
      • Ranchos Penitas West Colonia
    • Ranchitos Las Lomas
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Ranchitos Las Lomas have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ranchitos Las Lomas
      • Ranchitos Las Lomas is located in Webb County
    • Regency Village
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Regency Village have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Regency Village
      • Regency Village is located in Webb County
      • Regency Village has also been known as:
      • Regency Village Colonia
    • Islitas ‑ Historic
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Islitas have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Islitas
      • Islitas is located in Webb County
    • Santo Tomas ‑ Historic
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Santo Tomas have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Santo Tomas
      • Santo Tomas is located in Webb County
    • Laredo
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
    • Larga Vista
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Larga Vista have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Larga Vista
      • Larga Vista is located in Webb County
      • Larga Vista has also been known as:
      • Larga Vista Colonia
    • Pescadito ‑ Historic
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Pescadito have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pescadito
      • Pescadito is located in Webb County
    • Laredo Ranchettes
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Laredo Ranchettes have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Laredo Ranchettes
      • Laredo Ranchettes is located in Webb County
  • La Salle County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Callaghan, with the one closest to Callaghan listed first.
    • Encinal
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
    • Artesia Wells
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)

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

Cemeteries Near Callaghan ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Callaghan.

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

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

  • Cactus Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Cactus Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Cactus Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Encinal Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Encinal Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Encinal Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located outside and to the east of Encinal.
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2139133 <3>
  • Tordillo Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Tordillo Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Tordillo Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Becerra Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Becerra Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Becerra Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Darwin Cemetery
    (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Darwin Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Darwin Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Dolores Cemetery
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
  • Calvary Catholic Cemetery
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Calvary Catholic Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Calvary Catholic Cemetery is a very large cemetery that is located in Laredo.
    • The Calvary Catholic Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Catholic Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #1966533 <3>
  • City Cemetery
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the City Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the City Cemetery is a very large cemetery that is located in Laredo.
    • The City Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Laredo City Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #1186555 <3>

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

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

  • Cactus
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Cactus have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cactus
    • Cactus is located in Webb County
  • Webb
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Webb have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Webb
    • Webb is located in Webb County
  • Encinal
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
  • Laredo
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
  • Pescadito ‑ Historic
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Pescadito have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pescadito
    • Pescadito is located in Webb County

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

Newspapers Published in Callaghan ...

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 32 newspapers that have been published in the area around Callaghan.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Callaghan, there are papers which were published within 26 miles [41.8 km]<5>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Callaghan.

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 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 Callaghan:

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

The official website for Webb County: www.webbcounty.com/

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

Footnotes ...

<1>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.
<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 Callaghan, 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 obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Callaghan) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Callaghan. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 27.8767, Longitude: -99.4006       In this case, the coordinates for Callaghan have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).




 

Copyright 2025
All Rights Reserved

Thank you for visiting our website.

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