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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 El Martillo (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 El Martillo. 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.

El Martillo is located in Kleberg 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 Kleberg County: Brooks, Jim Wells, Kenedy & Nueces.

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

  • Kleberg County     (The home county of El Martillo)
    • The following are listed by their distance from El Martillo, with the one closest to El Martillo listed first.
    • Vattmannville
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Vattmannville. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<1>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Vattmannville
      • Vattmannville is located in Kleberg County
    • Riviera
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
    • Kingsville
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Kenedy County
    • Sarita
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Sarita have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sarita
      • Sarita is located in Kenedy County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Sarita <2>
  • Nueces County
    • The following are listed by their distance from El Martillo, with the one closest to El Martillo listed first.
    • Chapman Ranch
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Chapman Ranch have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chapman Ranch
      • Chapman Ranch is located in Nueces County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Chapman Ranch <2>
    • Tierra Grande
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Tierra Grande have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tierra Grande
      • Tierra Grande is located in Nueces County
    • Petronila
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Petronila have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Petronila
      • Petronila is located in Nueces County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 112 people
    • Bishop
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Corpus Christi
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
    • Driscoll
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)

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

Cemeteries Near El Martillo ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of El Martillo.

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

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

  • Chapman Ranch Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
  • Vattman Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Vattman Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Vattman Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Sarita Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Sarita Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Sarita Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Riviera Cemetery
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Riviera Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Riviera Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • St. Paul Cemetery
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Paul Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Paul Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Flinn Cemetery
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Flinn Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Flinn Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Seaside Memorial Park
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Seaside Memorial Park
    • The Seaside Memorial Park has also been known as:
    • Aberdeen Cemetery
    • Seaside Memorial Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #6828 <5>
  • Memory Gardens Cemetery
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Memory Gardens Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Memory Gardens Cemetery is a very large cemetery that is located 6 miles [9.7 km]<4> to the northeast of Corpus Christi.
    • The Memory Gardens Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Emory Gardens of Corpus Christi
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #5199 <5>
  • Chamberlain Cemetery
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Chamberlain Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Chamberlain Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located outside and to the southwest of Kingsville.
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2864 <5>
  • Continue List   (6 more) ...
    • St. Gertrudis Memorial Cemetery
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Santa Gertrudis Memorial Cemetery
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Santo Gertrudis Memorial Cemetery
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Rest Haven Memorial Park
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Rest Haven Memorial Park
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Rest Haven Memorial Park have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Canales Cemetery
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Canales Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Canales Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.

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

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

  • Corpus Christi
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
  • Driscoll
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)

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

Newspapers Published in El Martillo ...

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 81 newspapers that have been published in the area around El Martillo.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of El Martillo, there are papers which were published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for El Martillo.

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 El Martillo:

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

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

Footnotes ...

<1>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.
<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 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.
<4>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- El Martillo) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in El Martillo. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 27.3409, Longitude: -97.4483       In this case, the coordinates for El Martillo 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 El Martillo, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 29 Apr 2025