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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 Central Estates (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 Central Estates. 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 Central Estates ...

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.

Central Estates has also been known as: Central Estates Colonia.

  • A typical abbreviation for Central Estates: Central Ests.

You might be interested in other communities that are also named Central Estates. More information can be found on our Tidbits & Trivia Page for Central Estates.

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 southeast 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 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 east 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.

Central Estates is located in Cameron 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 Cameron County: Hidalgo & Willacy.

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

  • Cameron County     (The home county of Central Estates)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Central Estates, with the one closest to Central Estates listed first.
    • Reid Hope King
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Reid Hope King is located in Cameron County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Reid Hope King
      • Reid Hope King has also been known as:
      • Reid Hope King Colonia
    • Cameron Park
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
      • Cameron Park is located in Cameron County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cameron Park
      • Cameron Park has also been known as:
      • Cameron Park Colonia
    • Brownsville
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Villa Pancho
      (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
      • Villa Pancho is located in Cameron County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Villa Pancho
      • Villa Pancho has also been known as:
      • Villa Pancho Colonia
    • Del Mar Heights
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
      • Del Mar Heights is located in Cameron County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Del Mar Heights
      • Del Mar Heights has also been known as:
      • Del Mar Heights Colonia
    • Olmito
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • South Point
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
      • South Point is located in Cameron County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Point
      • South Point has also been known as:
      • South Point Colonia
    • Chula Vista - Orason
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
      • Chula Vista - Orason is located in Cameron County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chula Vista - Orason
    • Los Fresnos
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
    • Indian Lake
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Indian Lake is located in Cameron County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Indian Lake
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 864 people
    • Rancho Viejo
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
    • San Pedro
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
      • San Pedro is located in Cameron County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for San Pedro
      • San Pedro has also been known as:
      • San Pedro Colonia
    • Laureles
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
      • Laureles is located in Cameron County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Laureles
  • Hidalgo County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Central Estates, with the one closest to Central Estates listed first.
    • Rio Rico
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
      • Rio Rico is located in Hidalgo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rio Rico
    • Relampago
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
      • Relampago is located in Hidalgo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Relampago
  • Willacy County
    • Santa Monica
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
      • Santa Monica is located in Willacy County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Santa Monica

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

Cemeteries Near Central Estates ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Central Estates.

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 Central Estates - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • Buena Vista Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Old City Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Santa Rosalia Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
  • Southmost Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Russell's Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
  • Soldiers Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
  • Zepeda Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Zepeda Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Zepeda Cemetery is located 2 miles [3.2 km]<3> to the southeast of La Paloma.
  • San Benito City Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
  • San Benito Memorial Park Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
  • Monte Meta Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
  • Rio Hondo Community Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rio Hondo Community Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Rio Hondo Community Cemetery is located outside and to the east of Rio Hondo.
    • The Rio Hondo Community Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Jack Carpenter Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2188890 <2>
  • Rio Hondo City Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
  • Continue List   (15 more) ...
    • La Leona Cemetery
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
    • Harlingan City Cemetery
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Ashland Memorial Park
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ashland Memorial Park
      • The Ashland Memorial Park has also been known as:
      • Loma Linda Cemetery

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

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

  • Brownsville
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Santa Maria
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)

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

Newspapers Published in Central Estates ...

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 64 newspapers that have been published in the area around Central Estates.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Central Estates, there are papers which were published within 22 miles [35.4 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Central Estates.

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 Central Estates:

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>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a '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- Central Estates) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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 Central Estates, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.