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 Comstock (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 Comstock. 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 southwest 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 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 west 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.

Comstock is located in Val Verde 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 Val Verde County: Crockett, Edwards, Kinney, Sutton & Terrell.

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

• Val Verde County     (The home county of Comstock)
  • The following are listed by their distance from Comstock, with the one closest to Comstock listed first.
  • Box Canyon - Amistad
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Box Canyon - Amistad
    • Box Canyon - Amistad is located in Val Verde County
  • Amistad Acres
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Amistad Acres
    • Amistad Acres is located in Val Verde County
    • Amistad Acres has also been known as:
    • Amistad
  • Amistad Village
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Amistad Village
    • Amistad Village is located in Val Verde County
  • Lake View
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Lake View have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lake View
    • Lake View is located in Val Verde County
  • Langtry
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Langtry
    • Langtry is located in Val Verde County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Langtry <2>
  • Cienegas Terrace
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Cienegas Terrace have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cienegas Terrace
    • Cienegas Terrace is located in Val Verde County
    • Cienegas Terrace has also been known as:
    • Cienegas Terrace Colonia
  • Del Rio
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Del Rio
    • Del Rio is located in Val Verde County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 35,722 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Del Rio <2>
  • Val Verde Park
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Val Verde Park have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Val Verde Park
    • Val Verde Park is located in Val Verde County
    • Val Verde Park has also been known as:
    • Val Verde Park Colonia
• Edwards County
  • Carta Valley
    (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Carta Valley
    • Carta Valley is located in Edwards County

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

Newspapers Published in Comstock ...

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 11 newspapers that have been published in the area around Comstock.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Comstock, there are papers which were published within 27 miles [43.5 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Comstock.

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 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 Comstock:

• Websites specific to Texas
  • Jump to Cyndi's List
  • Jump to Family Search
  • Jump to Genealogy Trails
  • Website for the //www.tsl.texas.gov/

• Pages specific to Val Verde County
  • Jump to Cyndi's List
  • Jump to Family Search
  • Jump to Genealogy Trails

• Genealogy information for nearby counties
  • Edwards County
    • Jump to Cyndi's List
    • Jump to Family Search
    • Jump to Genealogy Trails

• Cemetery Information and Directories for Texas
  • Cemetery Junction: Cemeteries of Texas
  • Cyndi's List
  • Cemeteries of Texas
  • Cemeteries of Val Verde County
  • FamilySearch.org: Cemeteries of Texas
  • Find-A-Grave: Home Page
  • Interment.net
  • Cemeteries of Texas

Cemeteries Near Comstock ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Comstock.

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

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

• Newman Cemetery
  (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Newman Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Newman Cemetery
• Babb Cemetery
  (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Babb Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Babb Cemetery
• Masonic Cemetery
  (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
  • To give a relative sense of its location, the Masonic Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located outside and to the west of Del Rio.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Masonic Cemetery
  • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #1960114 <4>
• Westlawn Cemetery
  (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
  • To give a relative sense of its location, the Westlawn Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located outside and to the west of Del Rio.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Westlawn Cemetery
  • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #7567 <4>
• Sacred Heart Cemetery
  (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
  • To give a relative sense of its location, the Sacred Heart Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located outside and to the west of Del Rio.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Sacred Heart Cemetery
  • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #268157 <4>
• St. Joseph's Cemetery
  (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
  • To give a relative sense of its location, the St. Joseph's Cemetery is located outside and to the southwest of Del Rio.
  • The St. Joseph's Cemetery has also been known as:
  • St. Jose Cemetery
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Joseph's Cemetery
  • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2484548 <4>
• Old San Felipe Cemetery
  (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Old San Felipe Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Old San Felipe Cemetery
• San Felipe Cemetery
  (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the San Felipe Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the San Felipe 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.<5>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that in 1895, Comstock had a post office and railroad service.

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

• Shumla
  (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Shumla have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shumla
  • Shumla is located in Val Verde County
• Langtry
  (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Langtry
  • Langtry is located in Val Verde County
  • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Langtry <2>
• Del Rio
  (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Del Rio
  • Del Rio is located in Val Verde County
  • Population from the 2020 Census: 35,722 people
  • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Del Rio <2>

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

Off-the-Road Links ...

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

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