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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 Cedar Lake (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 Cedar Lake. 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 Cedar Lake ...

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 have occurred.

For example, a typical abbreviation for Cedar Lake: Cedar Lk.

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 northeast 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 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.

Cedar Lake is located in Matagorda 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 Matagorda County: Brazoria, Fort Bend, Jackson & Wharton.

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

  • Matagorda County     (The home county of Cedar Lake)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Cedar Lake, with the one closest to Cedar Lake listed first.
    • Sargent
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • Cedar Lane
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Cedar Lane have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cedar Lane
      • Cedar Lane is located in Matagorda County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Cedar Lane <1>
    • Caney
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Caney have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Caney
      • Caney is located in Matagorda County
    • Van Vleck
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Wadsworth
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Wadsworth have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wadsworth
      • Wadsworth is located in Matagorda County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Wadsworth <1>
    • Gulf ‑ Historic
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Gulf have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gulf
      • Gulf is located in Matagorda County
    • Bay City
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Bay City have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bay City
      • Bay City is located in Matagorda County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 17,474 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Bay City <1>
    • Chalmers
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chalmers
      • Chalmers is located in Matagorda County
    • Elliott ‑ Historic
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Elliott. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elliott
      • Elliott is located in Matagorda County
      • Elliott has also been known as:
      • Elliott's
    • McCroskey
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for McCroskey
      • McCroskey is located in Matagorda County
    • Matagorda
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Pledger
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Pledger have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pledger
      • Pledger is located in Matagorda County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Pledger <1>
    • Markham
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Markham have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Markham
      • Markham is located in Matagorda County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Markham <1>
  • Brazoria County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Cedar Lake, with the one closest to Cedar Lake listed first.
    • Brazoria
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
    • Sweeny
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
    • Wild Peach Village
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Wild Peach Village have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wild Peach Village
      • Wild Peach Village is located in Brazoria County
    • Jones Creek
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Old Ocean
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Old Ocean have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Old Ocean
      • Old Ocean is located in Brazoria County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Old Ocean <1>
    • Lake Jackson
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Lake Jackson have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lake Jackson
      • Lake Jackson is located in Brazoria County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 27,063 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Lake Jackson <1>
    • Freeport
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Freeport have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Freeport
      • Freeport is located in Brazoria County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 12,126 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Freeport <1>
    • East Columbia
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for East Columbia
      • East Columbia is located in Brazoria County
    • West Columbia
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
    • Clute
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Clute have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clute
      • Clute is located in Brazoria County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 11,724 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Clute <1>
    • Velasco
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Velasco have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Velasco
      • Velasco is located in Brazoria County
    • Richwood
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Richwood have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Richwood
      • Richwood is located in Brazoria County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 4,015 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Richwood <1>
    • Bailey's Prairie
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bailey's Prairie
      • Bailey's Prairie is located in Brazoria County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 777 people
  • Wharton County
    • Newgulf
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)

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

Newspapers Published in Cedar Lake ...

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 41 newspapers that have been published in the area around Cedar Lake.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Cedar Lake, there are papers which were published within 24 miles [38.6 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Cedar Lake.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we like to start 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 Cedar Lake:

Cemeteries Near Cedar Lake ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Cedar Lake.

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

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

  • St. Paul MB Church Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
  • Bethlehem Christian Church Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
  • Cedar Lake Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for the Cedar Lake Cemetery. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Cedar Lake Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2513725 <5>
  • Jerusalem Baptist Church Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
  • Jaden Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Jaden Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Jaden Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #4487 <5>
  • Sargent Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Sargent Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Sargent Cemetery
  • Galilee MB Church Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Mims Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
  • Berean Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Berean Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Berean Cemetery
  • Boone Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Brazoria Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
  • Williams Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Williams Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Williams Cemetery
  • Continue List   (46 more) ...

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>

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

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

  • Hinkles Ferry
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Hinkles Ferry have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hinkles Ferry
    • Hinkles Ferry is located in Brazoria County
  • Brazoria
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
  • Caney
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Caney have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Caney
    • Caney is located in Matagorda County
  • Velasco
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Velasco have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Velasco
    • Velasco is located in Brazoria County
  • Quintana
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
  • Oyster Creek
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Oyster Creek have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oyster Creek
    • Oyster Creek is located in Brazoria County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,212 people
  • Elliott ‑ Historic
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Elliott. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elliott
    • Elliott is located in Matagorda County
    • Elliott has also been known as:
    • Elliott's
  • Matagorda
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
  • Pledger
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Pledger have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pledger
    • Pledger is located in Matagorda County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Pledger <1>
  • Chenango
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Chenango have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chenango
    • Chenango is located in Brazoria County
  • Ashby
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Ashby have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ashby
    • Ashby is located in Matagorda County

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

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

The official website for Matagorda County: www.co.matagorda.tx.us/

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' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Cedar Lake) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Cedar Lake. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 28.9011, Longitude: -95.6369       In this case, the coordinates for Cedar Lake have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<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 Cedar Lake, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024