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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 Hinkles Ferry (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 Hinkles Ferry. 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 Hinkles Ferry ...

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.

  • A typical abbreviation for Hinkles Ferry: Hinkles Fry. (or less commonly used: Hinkles Frry.)
  • While the name of this community is Hinkles Ferry, be aware that it's the common practice of mapmakers to remove the apostrophe from possessive names<1>. So Hinkles Ferry may originally have been Hinkle's Ferry.

    Sometimes the trailing 's' might be dropped altogether, in which case Hinkles Ferry might be written as Hinkle Ferry.

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 and doctors 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.

Hinkles Ferry is located in Brazoria 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 Brazoria County: Fort Bend, Galveston, Harris, Matagorda & Wharton.

Below are the counties that are near Hinkles Ferry. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Hinkles Ferry:

  • Brazoria County     (The home county of Hinkles Ferry)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Hinkles Ferry, with the one closest to Hinkles Ferry listed first.
    • Jones Creek
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Brazoria
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Lake Jackson
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Sweeny
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Wild Peach Village
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
      • Wild Peach Village is located in Brazoria County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wild Peach Village
    • Freeport
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
    • Velasco
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
      • Velasco is located in Brazoria County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Velasco
    • Clute
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Clute is located in Brazoria County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clute
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 11,724 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Clute <2>
    • Richwood
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
    • East Columbia
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
      • East Columbia is located in Brazoria County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for East Columbia
    • Bailey's Prairie
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
      • Bailey's Prairie is located in Brazoria County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bailey's Prairie
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 777 people
    • Old Ocean
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Fort Bend County
    • Guy
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Matagorda County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Hinkles Ferry, with the one closest to Hinkles Ferry listed first.
    • Sargent
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Cedar Lane
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
    • Caney
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
      • Caney is located in Matagorda County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Caney
    • Van Vleck
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
    • Wadsworth
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
    • Gulf ‑ Historic
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
      • Gulf is located in Matagorda County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gulf
    • Bay City
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
    • Chalmers
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
      • Chalmers is located in Matagorda County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chalmers
    • McCroskey
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
      • McCroskey is located in Matagorda County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for McCroskey
    • Pledger
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Elliott ‑ Historic
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
      • Elliott is located in Matagorda County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elliott
      • Elliott has also been known as:
      • Elliott's
    • Markham
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
  • Wharton County
    • Newgulf
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)

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

Cemeteries Near Hinkles Ferry ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Hinkles Ferry.

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 Hinkles Ferry - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

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.<5>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Hinkles Ferry had a population of 27 people in 1895 with a post office and no railroad service.

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

  • Brazoria
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
  • Velasco
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
    • Velasco is located in Brazoria County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Velasco
  • Quintana
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
  • Oyster Creek
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
    • Oyster Creek is located in Brazoria County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oyster Creek
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,212 people
  • Caney
    (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
    • Caney is located in Matagorda County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Caney
  • Chenango
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
    • Chenango is located in Brazoria County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chenango
  • Bonney
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
    • Bonney is located in Brazoria County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bonney
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 380 people
  • Pledger
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Elliott ‑ Historic
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
    • Elliott is located in Matagorda County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elliott
    • Elliott has also been known as:
    • Elliott's
  • Liverpool
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)

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

Newspapers Published in Hinkles Ferry ...

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 42 newspapers that have been published in the area around Hinkles Ferry.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Hinkles Ferry, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Hinkles Ferry.

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 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 Hinkles Ferry:

Footnotes ...

<1>It's generally believed that possessive apostrophes are removed to prevent confusion on maps where the apostrophe may be confused with a cartographic symbol. While this is generally true, it's not uncommon to find possessive apostrophes in administrative names (such as towns or counties).
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<3>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- Hinkles Ferry) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<4>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.
<5>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 Hinkles Ferry, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.