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 Fort Travis (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 Fort Travis. 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 Fort Travis ...
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.
For example, a typical abbreviation for Fort Travis: Ft. Travis
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 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.
Fort Travis is located in Galveston 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 Galveston County: Brazoria & Harris.
Below are the counties that are near Fort Travis. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Fort Travis:
- Galveston County (The home county of Fort Travis)
- The following are listed by their distance from Fort Travis, with the one closest to Fort Travis listed first.
- Port Bolivar
(Less than 2 miles to the north)
- Galveston
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
- Crystal Beach
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
- Texas City
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
- Tiki Island
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
- Tiki Island is located in Galveston County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tiki Island
- Population from the 2020 Census: 1,072 people
- Tiki Island has also been known as:
- Village of Tiki Island
- Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Tiki Island <1>
- Texas City Junction
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
- Texas City Junction is located in Galveston County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Texas City Junction
- Bayou Vista
(11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
- Bayou Vista is located in Galveston County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bayou Vista
- Population from the 2020 Census: 1,637 people
- La Marque
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
- Texas City Terminal Junction
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
- Bolivar Peninsula
(13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
- Bolivar Peninsula is located in Galveston County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bolivar Peninsula
- San Leon
(13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
- Hitchcock
(15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
- Brazoria County
- The following are listed by their distance from Fort Travis, with the one closest to Fort Travis listed first.
- Hillcrest
(28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
- Hillcrest is located in Brazoria County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hillcrest
- Population from the 2020 Census: 706 people
- San Luis ‑ Historic
(29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
- San Luis is located in Brazoria County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for San Luis
- Alvin
(29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
- Chambers County
- The following are listed by their distance from Fort Travis, with the one closest to Fort Travis listed first.
- Smith Point
(11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
- Smith Point is located in Chambers County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Smith Point
- Seabrook
(21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
- Shoreacres
(23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
- Shoreacres is located in Chambers County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shoreacres
- Population from the 2020 Census: 1,578 people
- Double Bayou
(24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
- Double Bayou is located in Chambers County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Double Bayou
- Beach City
(26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
- Beach City is located in Chambers County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Beach City
- Population from the 2020 Census: 2,825 people
- Anahuac
(28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
- Baytown
(28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
- Monroe City
(30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
- Monroe City is located in Chambers County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Monroe City
- Harris County
- The following are listed by their distance from Fort Travis, with the one closest to Fort Travis listed first.
- Mystic Village
(21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
- Mystic Village is located in Harris County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mystic Village
- El Lago
(22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
- Nassau Bay
(23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
- Taylor Lake Village
(23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
- Gateway Village
(24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
- Gateway Village is located in Harris County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gateway Village
- Webster
(24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
- Clear Lake City
(25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
- Baybrook Village
(26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
- Baybrook Village is located in Harris County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Baybrook Village
- La Porte
(26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
- Morgan's Point
(26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
- Morgan's Point is located in Harris County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Morgan's Point
- Population from the 2020 Census: 337 people
- Cedar Bayou
(30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
- Cedar Bayou is located in Harris County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cedar Bayou
- Chaparral Village
(30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
- Chaparral Village is located in Harris County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chaparral Village
For an expanded list of the communities that are closest to Fort Travis, see our County-by-County Page for Fort Travis.
Cemeteries Near Fort Travis ...
Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Fort Travis.
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 Fort Travis - one of the links might be able to help.
If not found below, our Cemetery List for Fort Travis covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.
The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Fort Travis, with the one closest to Fort Travis listed first.
- Port Bolivar Cemetery
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
- Evergreen Cemetery
(5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
- Calvary Cemetery
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
- Greek Cemetery
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
- Beth Jacob Cemetery
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
- Galveston Municipal Cemetery
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
- Municipal Cemetery
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
- Serbian Orthodox Cemetery
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Serbian Orthodox Cemetery
- The Serbian Orthodox Cemetery has also been known as:
- Serbian Cemetery
- Lakeview Cemetery
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
- Memorial Cemetery
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
- Davis Cemetery
(11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
- Texas City Memorial Cemetery
(11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
- Continue List (35 more) ...
- La Marque Cemetery
(11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
- Frankland Cemetery
(13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
- Phillips Memorial Cemetery
(13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
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 Fort Travis in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Fort Travis.
These communities are listed based on their distance from Fort Travis, with the one closest to Fort Travis listed first.
- Galveston
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
- Virginia Point
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
- Virginia Point is located in Galveston County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Virginia Point
- Smith Point
(11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
- Smith Point is located in Chambers County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Smith Point
- La Marque
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
- Dickinson
(19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
- Arcadia
(21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
- Arcadia is located in Galveston County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Arcadia
- Double Bayou
(24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
- Double Bayou is located in Chambers County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Double Bayou
- Anahuac
(28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
- Alvin
(29 miles [46.7 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 Fort Travis. See our List of 1890's Communities around Fort Travis.
Newspapers Published in Fort Travis ...
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 214 newspapers that have been published in the area around Fort Travis.
Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Fort Travis, 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 Fort Travis.
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 professional and volunteer 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 Fort Travis:
- Websites specific to Texas
- Pages specific to Galveston County
- Genealogy information for nearby counties
- Brazoria County
- Chambers County
- Harris 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 Fort Travis, 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' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Fort Travis) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'. |