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 Hawley (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 Hawley. 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 southeast 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 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 east 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.
Hawley is located in Jones 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 Jones County: Callahan, Fisher, Haskell, Nolan, Shackelford, Stonewall & Taylor.
Below are the counties that are near Hawley. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Hawley:
- Jones County (The home county of Hawley)
- The following are listed by their distance from Hawley, with the one closest to Hawley listed first.
- Fort Phantom Hill ‑ Historic
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
- Fort Phantom Hill is located in Jones County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fort Phantom Hill
- Stith
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
- Stith is located in Jones County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stith
- Funston
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
- Funston is located in Jones County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Funston
- Anson
(11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
- Lueders
(17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
- Avoca
(18 miles [29 km] to the north)
- Radium
(18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
- Radium is located in Jones County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Radium
- Tuxedo
(24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
- Tuxedo is located in Jones County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tuxedo
- Callahan County
- The following are listed by their distance from Hawley, with the one closest to Hawley listed first.
- Clyde
(22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
- Eula
(23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
- Eula is located in Callahan County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eula
- Baird
(28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
- Denton
(28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
- Denton is located in Callahan County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Denton
- Denton has also been known as:
- Denton Valley
- Fisher County
- The following are listed by their distance from Hawley, with the one closest to Hawley listed first.
- McCaulley
(25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
- McCaulley is located in Fisher County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for McCaulley
- Hamlin
(26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
- Sylvester
(27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
- Haskell County
- The following are listed by their distance from Hawley, with the one closest to Hawley listed first.
- Stamford
(23 miles [37 km] to the north)
- Plainview
(28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
- Plainview is located in Haskell County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Plainview
- Taylor County
- The following are listed by their distance from Hawley, with the one closest to Hawley listed first.
- Impact
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
- Impact is located in Taylor County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Impact
- Population from the 2020 Census: 31 people
- Tye
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
- Abilene
(11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
- Hamby
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
- Hamby is located in Taylor County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hamby
- Merkel
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
- Mount Pleasant
(17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
- Mount Pleasant is located in Taylor County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mount Pleasant
- Trent
(19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
- Potosi
(21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
- Potosi is located in Taylor County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Potosi
- Buffalo Gap
(22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
- Buffalo Gap is located in Taylor County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Buffalo Gap
- Population from the 2020 Census: 582 people
- Tuscola
(27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
- Ovalo
(29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
For an expanded list of the communities that are closest to Hawley, see our County-by-County Page for Hawley.
Cemeteries Near Hawley ...
Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Hawley.
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 Hawley - one of the links might be able to help.
If not found below, our Cemetery List for Hawley covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.
The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Hawley, with the one closest to Hawley listed first.
- Hawley Cemetery
(Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
- Mid Way Cemetery
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
- Central Cemetery
(5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
- Phantom Hill Cemetery
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
- Truby Cemetery
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
- Round Mound Cemetery
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
- Little Elm Cemetery
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
- Mt. Hope Cemetery
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
- Little Elm Cemetery
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
- Bethel Cemetery
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
- Tye Cemetery
(11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
- Cedar Hill Cemetery
(11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
- Continue List (35 more) ...
- Hamby Cemetery
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
- Rising Sun Cemetery
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
- Elmwood Memorial Park
(13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
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 Hawley in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Hawley.
These communities are listed based on their distance from Hawley, with the one closest to Hawley listed first.
- Phantom Hill
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
- Phantom Hill is located in Jones County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Phantom Hill
- Abilene
(11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
- Anson
(11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
- Merkel
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
- Elmdale
(15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
- Elmdale is located in Taylor County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elmdale
- Trent
(19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
- Neinda
(21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
- Neinda is located in Jones County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Neinda
- Buffalo Gap
(22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
- Buffalo Gap is located in Taylor County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Buffalo Gap
- Population from the 2020 Census: 582 people
- Clyde
(22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
- Eskota
(25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
- Eskota is located in Fisher County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eskota
- Baird
(28 miles [45.1 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 Hawley. See our List of 1890's Communities around Hawley.
Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Hawley ...
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 67 newspapers that have been published in the area around Hawley.
We have organized these newspapers into two lists:
- A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Hawley. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Hawley and those printed in the larger area surrounding Hawley.
- An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 28 miles [45.1 km]<4> of Hawley.
Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...
When we do our genealogical research, we first visit 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 Hawley:
- Websites specific to Texas
- Pages specific to Jones County
- Genealogy information for nearby counties
- Callahan County
- Fisher County
- Haskell County
- Taylor 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 Hawley, 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- Hawley) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'. |