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 Sauz (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 Sauz. 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 hospitals 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.
El Sauz is located in Starr 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 Starr County: Brooks, Hidalgo, Jim Hogg & Zapata.
Below are the counties that are near El Sauz. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to El Sauz:
- Starr County (The home county of El Sauz)
- The following are listed by their distance from El Sauz, with the one closest to El Sauz listed first.
- Miguel Barrera
(11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
- Miguel Barrera is located in Starr County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Miguel Barrera
- Miguel Barrera has also been known as:
- Miguel Barrera Colonia
- Garceno
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
- Garceno is located in Starr County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Garceno
- La Rosita
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
- La Rosita is located in Starr County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for La Rosita
- Los Alvarez
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
- Los Alvarez is located in Starr County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Los Alvarez
- Los Villareales
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
- Los Villareales is located in Starr County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Los Villareales
- La Carla
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
- La Carla is located in Starr County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for La Carla
- La Carla has also been known as:
- La Carla Colonia
- Escobares
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
- Escobares is located in Starr County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Escobares
- Estimated population in 2015: 2,451 people
- North Escobares
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
- North Escobares is located in Starr County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Escobares
- Rio Grande City
(13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
- Santel
(13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
- Santel is located in Starr County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Santel
- Santel has also been known as:
- Santel Colonia
- Roma Creek
(13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
- Roma Creek is located in Starr County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Roma Creek
- Roma
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
- Roma is located in Starr County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Roma
- Population from the 2020 Census: 11,476 people
- Roma has also been known as:
- Roma - Los Saenz
- Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Roma <1>
- Hidalgo County
- The following are listed by their distance from El Sauz, with the one closest to El Sauz listed first.
- Sullivan City
(27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
- Cuevitas
(28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
- Cuevitas is located in Hidalgo County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cuevitas
- Los Ebanos
(29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
- McCook
(30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
- Sam Fordyce ‑ Historic
(30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
- Sam Fordyce is located in Hidalgo County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sam Fordyce
- Jim Hogg County
- Guerra
(21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
- Zapata County
- The following are listed by their distance from El Sauz, with the one closest to El Sauz listed first.
- New Falcon
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
- New Falcon is located in Zapata County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for New Falcon
- New Falcon has also been known as:
- New Falcon Colonia
- Lopeno
(17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
- Morales - Sanchez
(20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
- Morales - Sanchez is located in Zapata County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Morales - Sanchez
- Morales - Sanchez has also been known as:
- Morales - Sanchez Colonia
- Siesta Shores
(30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
- Siesta Shores is located in Zapata County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Siesta Shores
For an expanded list of the communities that are closest to El Sauz, see our County-by-County Page for El Sauz.
Cemeteries Near El Sauz ...
Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of El Sauz.
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 El Sauz - one of the links might be able to help.
If not found below, our Cemetery List for El Sauz covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.
The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from El Sauz, with the one closest to El Sauz listed first.
- Garcia Cemetery
(Less than 2 miles to the west)
- Elizondo Cemetery
(Less than 2 miles to the west)
- Una de Gato Cemetery
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
- Agua Dulce Cemetery
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
- Buena Vista Cemetery
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
- Cementerio San Antonio de Escobares Cemetery
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
- Los Arrierous Cemetery
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
- Los Garzas Cemetery
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
- Olmos Cemetery
(15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
- Chapeno Cemetery
(17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
- Santa Maria Cemetery
(19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
- Garciasville Cemetery
(20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
- Continue List (21 more) ...
- Coyote Cemetery
(20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
- Tangue Allegre Cemetery
(20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
- San Jose Cemetery
(22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
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.<3>
While we didn't find El Sauz in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of El Sauz.
These communities are listed based on their distance from El Sauz, with the one closest to El Sauz listed first.
- Rio Grande City
(13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
- Roma
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
- Roma is located in Starr County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Roma
- Population from the 2020 Census: 11,476 people
- Roma has also been known as:
- Roma - Los Saenz
- Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Roma <1>
We've also created an expanded list of communities that existed in the 1890's and were located in the area around El Sauz. See our List of 1890's Communities around El Sauz.
Newspapers Published in El Sauz ...
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 6 newspapers that have been published in the area around El Sauz.
Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of El Sauz, there are papers which were published within 14 miles [22.5 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for El Sauz.
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 El Sauz:
- Websites specific to Texas
- Pages specific to Starr County
- Genealogy information for nearby counties
- Hidalgo County
- Jim Hogg County
- Zapata County
- Cemetery Information and Directories for Texas
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> | 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 Sauz, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy. |
| <4> | Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or 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- El Sauz) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'. |