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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 Lamesa (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 Lamesa. 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 Lamesa ...

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 have occurred.

Lamesa has also been known as: La Mesa.

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.

Lamesa is located in Dawson County and is the County Seat.

To see how the shape of Texas' counties have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Dawson County: Andrews, Borden, Gaines, Howard, Lynn, Martin & Terry.

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

  • Dawson County     (The home county of Lamesa)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Lamesa, with the one closest to Lamesa listed first.
    • Los Ybanez
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Los Ybanez have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Los Ybanez
      • Los Ybanez is located in Dawson County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 17 people
    • Sparenberg
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sparenberg
      • Sparenberg is located in Dawson County
    • Welch
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Welch have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Welch
      • Welch is located in Dawson County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Welch <2>
    • O'Donnell
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for O'Donnell have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for O'Donnell
      • O'Donnell is located in Dawson County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 847 people
    • Ackerly
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Ackerly have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ackerly
      • Ackerly is located in Dawson County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 234 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Ackerly <2>
  • Borden County
  • Gaines County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Lamesa, with the one closest to Lamesa listed first.
    • White City ‑ Historic
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for White City have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for White City
      • White City is located in Gaines County
    • Loop
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Howard County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Lamesa, with the one closest to Lamesa listed first.
    • Vealmoor
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Knott
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Knott have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Knott
      • Knott is located in Howard County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Knott <2>
  • Lynn County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Lamesa, with the one closest to Lamesa listed first.
    • Draw
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Draw
      • Draw is located in Lynn County
    • Tahoka
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Tahoka have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tahoka
      • Tahoka is located in Lynn County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,665 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Tahoka <2>
  • Martin County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Lamesa, with the one closest to Lamesa listed first.
    • Tarzan
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Tarzan have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tarzan
      • Tarzan is located in Martin County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Tarzan <2>
    • Lenorah
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Lenorah have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lenorah
      • Lenorah is located in Martin County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Lenorah <2>

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Lamesa ...

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 12 newspapers that have been published in the area around Lamesa.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Lamesa. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Lamesa and those printed in the larger area surrounding Lamesa.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<3> of Lamesa.

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 Lamesa:

Cemeteries Near Lamesa ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Lamesa.

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.

If you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our selection of Genealogy Websites (see below).

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

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

  • Midway Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Midway Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Midway Cemetery
  • Fairview Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Fairview Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Fairview Cemetery
  • ODonnell Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the ODonnell Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the ODonnell Cemetery
  • Pride Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Pride Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Pride Cemetery
  • Plain View Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Plain View Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Plain View Cemetery
  • Fairhaven Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Fairhaven Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Fairhaven Cemetery
  • Union Cemetery
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Union Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Union Cemetery
  • Vealmoor Cemetery
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Vealmoor Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Vealmoor Cemetery
  • Knott Cemetery
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Knott Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Knott Cemetery

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

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

The official website for Lamesa: www.ci.lamesa.tx.us/

The official website for State of Texas: https://texas.gov/

Footnotes ...

<1>The location has been supplied by the Geographic Names Information System - which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While these values should be definitive, we found that accuracy can vary and you should double-check the location if accuracy is required.
<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 things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Lamesa) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Lamesa. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 32.7357, Longitude: -101.9556    
<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 Lamesa, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024