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Our Genealogy Helper

Introduction ...

So far, we found very little information about Lyra. The little that we've found leads us believe that the community is historic.<1>

We've added Lyra to our Gazetteer with the hope that we can develop more information. If you can help us with Lyra, please Contact Us.

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 Lyra (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 Lyra. 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 southwest 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 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 west 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.

Although our information shows that the community of Lyra is historic, it would have been located within present day Palo Pinto 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 Palo Pinto County: Eastland, Erath, Hood, Jack, Parker, Stephens & Young.

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

  • Palo Pinto County     (The home county of Lyra)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Lyra, with the one closest to Lyra listed first.
    • Strawn
      (Less than 2 miles to the west)
    • Mingus
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Gordon
      (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
    • Santo
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
    • Palo Pinto
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Brazos
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
      • Brazos is located in Palo Pinto County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brazos
    • Graford
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Mineral Wells
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Wolters Village
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Wolters Village is located in Palo Pinto County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wolters Village
  • Comanche County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Lyra, with the one closest to Lyra listed first.
    • Rucker
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
      • Rucker is located in Comanche County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rucker
    • De Leon
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
  • Eastland County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Lyra, with the one closest to Lyra listed first.
    • Ranger
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Olden
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
    • Desdemona
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
    • Eastland
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Kokomo
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
      • Kokomo is located in Eastland County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kokomo
    • Gorman
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Mangum ‑ Historic
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
      • Mangum is located in Eastland County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mangum
    • Carbon
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
  • Erath County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Lyra, with the one closest to Lyra listed first.
    • Thurber
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Hannibal
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Hannibal is located in Erath County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hannibal
    • Morgan Mill
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Lingleville
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
    • Bunyan
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
      • Bunyan is located in Erath County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bunyan
    • Stephenville
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Bluff Dale
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Hood County
    • Lipan
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
  • Parker County
    • Millsap
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Stephens County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Lyra, with the one closest to Lyra listed first.
    • La Casa ‑ Historic
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
      • La Casa is located in Stephens County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for La Casa
    • Caddo
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Necessity
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
      • Necessity is located in Stephens County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Necessity
    • Wayland
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
      • Wayland is located in Stephens County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wayland
    • Gunsight ‑ Historic
      (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
      • Gunsight is located in Stephens County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gunsight
    • Breckenridge
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)

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

Cemeteries Near Lyra ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Lyra.

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 Lyra - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • Davidson Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
  • Hutchins Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
  • Mt. Marion Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Guest Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
  • McSpadden Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
  • Thurber Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
  • Fox Mtn. Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
  • Smith Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
  • Tudor Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
  • New Gordon Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
  • Old Gordon Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
  • Doty Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
  • Continue List   (118 more) ...
    • Swank Cemetery
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
    • Johnson Vault
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Gibson Cemetery
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)

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.

While we didn't find Lyra in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Lyra.

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

  • Strawn
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
  • Thurber
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
  • Gordon
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
  • Tiffin
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
    • Tiffin is located in Eastland County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tiffin
  • Ranger
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
  • La Casa ‑ Historic
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
    • La Casa is located in Stephens County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for La Casa
  • Hannibal
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Hannibal is located in Erath County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hannibal
  • Santo
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
  • Caddo
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Huckabay
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Huckabay is located in Erath County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Huckabay
  • Palo Pinto
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
  • Olden
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
  • Continue List   (14 more) ...
    • Desdemona
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
    • Brazos
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
      • Brazos is located in Palo Pinto County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brazos
    • Wayland
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
      • Wayland is located in Stephens County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wayland

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

Newspapers Published in Lyra ...

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 59 newspapers that have been published in the area around Lyra.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Lyra, 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 Lyra.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we like to 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 Lyra:

Footnotes ...

<1>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 Lyra, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<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' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Lyra) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.