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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 Falcon 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 Falcon 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 Falcon 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.

For example, a typical abbreviation for Falcon Heights: Falcoln Hts. (in Canada, 'Hgts.' is the more common abbreviation.)

You might be interested in other communities that are also named Falcon Heights. More information can be found on our Tidbits & Trivia Page for Falcon 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 northeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors were in the next county to the east. 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 east 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.

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

  • Starr County     (The home county of Falcon Heights)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Falcon Heights, with the one closest to Falcon Heights listed first.
    • Falcon Village
      (Less than 2 miles to the west)
      • Falcon Village is located in Starr County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Falcon Village
    • Salineno
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
    • Fronton
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
      • Fronton is located in Starr County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fronton
    • Roma Creek
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Roma Creek is located in Starr County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Roma Creek
    • Roma
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
      • 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>
    • North Escobares
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
      • North Escobares is located in Starr County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Escobares
    • Escobares
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Escobares is located in Starr County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Escobares
      • Estimated population in 2015: 2,451 people
    • Garceno
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Garceno is located in Starr County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Garceno
    • La Rosita
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
      • La Rosita is located in Starr County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for La Rosita
    • Miguel Barrera
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
      • 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
    • Los Alvarez
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
      • Los Alvarez is located in Starr County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Los Alvarez
    • Los Villareales
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
      • Los Villareales is located in Starr County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Los Villareales
    • Santel
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
      • Santel is located in Starr County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Santel
      • Santel has also been known as:
      • Santel Colonia
  • Jim Hogg County
  • Zapata County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Falcon Heights, with the one closest to Falcon Heights listed first.
    • New Falcon
      (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
      • 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
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
    • Morales - Sanchez
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
      • 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
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
      • Siesta Shores is located in Zapata County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Siesta Shores
    • Falcon Lake Estates
      (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
      • Falcon Lake Estates is located in Zapata County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Falcon Lake Estates
    • Falcon Mesa
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
      • Falcon Mesa is located in Zapata County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Falcon Mesa
    • Zapata
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
    • Medina
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
      • Medina is located in Zapata County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Medina

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

Cemeteries Near Falcon Heights ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Falcon 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 Falcon Heights - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • Chapeno Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Los Arrierous Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
  • Agua Dulce Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Cementerio San Antonio de Escobares Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Garcia Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
  • Elizondo Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
  • Buena Vista Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Una de Gato Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Los Garzas Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
  • Continue List   (6 more) ...
    • Garcia Cemetery
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
    • Manuel Benavides Garcia Cemetery
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
    • Olmos Cemetery
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Zapata Cemetery
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Ranchito Cemetery
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Uribeno Cemetery
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)

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

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

  • Roma
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
    • 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>
  • Rio Grande City
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)

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

Newspapers Published in Falcon 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 7 newspapers that have been published in the area around Falcon Heights.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Falcon Heights, there are papers which were published within 25 miles [40.2 km]<2>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Falcon Heights.

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 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 Falcon 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>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Falcon Heights) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<3>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.
<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 Falcon Heights, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.