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 Gem (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 Gem. 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 northeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors and hospitals 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.
Gem is located in Hemphill 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 Hemphill County: Ellis (OK), Roger Mills (OK), Lipscomb, Roberts & Wheeler.
Below are the counties that are near Gem. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Gem:
- Hemphill County (The home county of Gem)
- The following are listed by their distance from Gem, with the one closest to Gem listed first.
- Canadian
(16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
- Clear Creek
(16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
- Glazier
(17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
- Glazier is located in Hemphill County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Glazier
- Mendota ‑ Historic
(21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
- Mendota is located in Hemphill County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mendota
- Lipscomb County
- The following are listed by their distance from Gem, with the one closest to Gem listed first.
- Higgins
(23 miles [37 km] to the north)
- Locust Grove
(26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
- Locust Grove is located in Lipscomb County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Locust Grove
- Roberts County
- Miami
(29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
- Wheeler County
- The following are listed by their distance from Gem, with the one closest to Gem listed first.
- Allison
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
- Zybach ‑ Historic
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
- Zybach is located in Wheeler County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Zybach
- Briscoe
(16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
- Mobeetie
(24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
- Wheeler
(25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
- Beckham County (OK)
- Sweetwater
(27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
- Roger Mills County (OK)
- The following are listed by their distance from Gem, with the one closest to Gem listed first.
- Durham
(11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
- Reydon
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
- Reydon is located in Roger Mills County (OK)
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Reydon
- Population from the 2020 Census: 205 people
- Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Reydon <1>
- Crawford
(18 miles [29 km] to the east)
- Roll
(23 miles [37 km] to the east)
- Roll is located in Roger Mills County (OK)
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Roll
- Cheyenne
(27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
- Strong City
(30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
- Strong City is located in Roger Mills County (OK)
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Strong City
- Population from the 2020 Census: 46 people
For an expanded list of the communities that are closest to Gem, see our County-by-County Page for Gem.
Cemeteries Near Gem ...
Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Gem.
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 Gem - one of the links might be able to help.
If not found below, our Cemetery List for Gem covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.
The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Gem, with the one closest to Gem listed first.
- Cataline Cemetery
(5 miles [8 km] to the south)
- Prairie Dell Cemetery
(5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
- Union Chapel Cemetery
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
- Lindley Cemetery
(11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
- Zybach Cemetery
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
- Lone Tree Cemetery
(13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
- Washita Cemetery
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
- Fairview Cemetery
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
- White Rose Cemetery
(16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
- Edith Ford Memorial Cemeteries
(16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
- Sunrise Cemetery
(17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
- Belleview Cemetery
(18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
- Continue List (24 more) ...
- Rock Cemetery
(21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
- Silent Home Cemetery
(21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
- Mt. Zion Cemetery
(23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
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 Gem in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Gem.
These communities are listed based on their distance from Gem, with the one closest to Gem listed first.
- Canadian
(16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
- Glazier
(17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
- Glazier is located in Hemphill County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Glazier
- Mendota ‑ Historic
(21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
- Mendota is located in Hemphill County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mendota
- Higgins
(23 miles [37 km] to the north)
- Mobeetie
(24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
- Sweetwater
(27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
- Cheyenne
(27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
- Miami
(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 Gem. See our List of 1890's Communities around Gem.
Newspapers Published in Gem ...
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 28 newspapers that have been published in the area around Gem.
Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Gem, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Gem.
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 websites either 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 Gem:
- Websites specific to Texas
- Pages specific to Hemphill County
- Genealogy information for nearby counties
- Lipscomb County
- Roberts County
- Wheeler County
- Beckham County
- Roger Mills 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 Gem, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy. |
| <4> | Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Gem) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'. |