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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 Del Mar Heights (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 Del Mar Heights. 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 Del Mar Heights ...

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.

Del Mar Heights has also been known as: Del Mar Heights Colonia.

  • A typical abbreviation for Del Mar Heights: Del Mar Hts. (in Canada, 'Hgts.' is the more common abbreviation.)

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

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 northwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals and 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.

Del Mar Heights 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 Del Mar Heights. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Del Mar Heights:

  • Cameron County     (The home county of Del Mar Heights)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Del Mar Heights, with the one closest to Del Mar Heights listed first.
    • Chula Vista - Orason
      (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
      • Chula Vista - Orason is located in Cameron County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chula Vista - Orason
    • Los Fresnos
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
    • Bayview
      (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Indian Lake
      (5 miles [8 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
    • Laureles
      (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
      • Laureles is located in Cameron County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Laureles
    • Cameron Park
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
      • 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
    • Olmito
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Laguna Vista
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Rancho Viejo
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Green Valley Farms
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Green Valley Farms is located in Cameron County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Green Valley Farms
      • Green Valley Farms has also been known as:
      • Green Valley Farms Colonia
    • Reid Hope King
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
      • 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
    • Laguna Heights
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
      • Laguna Heights is located in Cameron County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Laguna Heights
  • Hidalgo County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Del Mar Heights, with the one closest to Del Mar Heights 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
    • Heidelberg
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
      • Heidelberg is located in Hidalgo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Heidelberg
    • Relampago
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
      • Relampago is located in Hidalgo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Relampago
  • Willacy County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Del Mar Heights, with the one closest to Del Mar Heights listed first.
    • Santa Monica
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
      • Santa Monica is located in Willacy County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Santa Monica
    • Sebastian
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Willamar
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Willamar is located in Willacy County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Willamar

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

Cemeteries Near Del Mar Heights ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Del Mar Heights.

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 Del Mar Heights - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • Soldiers Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
  • Buena Vista Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
  • Russell's Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Old City Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Santa Rosalia Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
  • Southmost Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
  • Monte Meta Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
  • San Benito City Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
  • San Benito Memorial Park Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
  • Zepeda Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 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.
  • La Leona Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
  • Rio Hondo Community Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 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>
  • Continue List   (19 more) ...
    • Rio Hondo City Cemetery
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Harlingan City Cemetery
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Ashland Memorial Park
      (20 miles [32.2 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 Del Mar Heights in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Del Mar Heights.

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

  • Brownsville
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
  • 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 Del Mar Heights. See our List of 1890's Communities around Del Mar Heights.

Newspapers Published in Del Mar Heights ...

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 Del Mar Heights.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Del Mar Heights, there are papers which were published within 19 miles [30.6 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Del Mar Heights.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we start 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 Del Mar Heights:

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 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Del Mar Heights) 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 Del Mar Heights, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.