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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 Margarita (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 Margarita. 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 Margarita ...

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.

Margarita has also been known as: Margarita Colonia.

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 southeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most 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.

Margarita is located in Starr 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 Starr County: Brooks, Hidalgo, Jim Hogg & Zapata.

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

  • Starr County     (The home county of Margarita)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Margarita, with the one closest to Margarita listed first.
    • Escobares
      (Less than 2 miles to the east)
      • Escobares is located in Starr County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Escobares
      • Estimated population in 2015: 2,451 people
    • North Escobares
      (Less than 2 miles to the north)
      • North Escobares is located in Starr County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Escobares
    • Garceno
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
      • Garceno is located in Starr County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Garceno
    • Roma Creek
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
      • Roma Creek is located in Starr County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Roma Creek
    • Roma
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
      • Roma is located in Starr County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Roma
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 11,476 people
      • Roma has also been known as:
      • Roma - Los Saenz
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Roma <1>
    • La Rosita
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
      • La Rosita is located in Starr County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for La Rosita
    • Miguel Barrera
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
      • Miguel Barrera is located in Starr County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Miguel Barrera
      • Miguel Barrera has also been known as:
      • Miguel Barrera Colonia
    • Los Alvarez
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
      • Los Alvarez is located in Starr County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Los Alvarez
    • Los Villareales
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
      • Los Villareales is located in Starr County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Los Villareales
    • Santel
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
      • Santel is located in Starr County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Santel
      • Santel has also been known as:
      • Santel Colonia
    • Fronton
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
      • Fronton is located in Starr County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fronton
    • Rio Grande City
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
  • Hidalgo County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Margarita, with the one closest to Margarita listed first.
    • Cuevitas
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
      • Cuevitas is located in Hidalgo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cuevitas
    • Sullivan City
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
    • Los Ebanos
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Sam Fordyce ‑ Historic
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
      • Sam Fordyce is located in Hidalgo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sam Fordyce
  • Zapata County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Margarita, with the one closest to Margarita listed first.
    • New Falcon
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
      • New Falcon is located in Zapata County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for New Falcon
      • New Falcon has also been known as:
      • New Falcon Colonia
    • Lopeno
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
    • Morales - Sanchez
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
      • Morales - Sanchez is located in Zapata County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Morales - Sanchez
      • Morales - Sanchez has also been known as:
      • Morales - Sanchez Colonia

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

Cemeteries Near Margarita ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Margarita.

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

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

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

  • Cementerio San Antonio de Escobares Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
  • Los Garzas Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
  • Los Arrierous Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Garcia Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Olmos Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
  • Elizondo Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Chapeno Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
  • Garciasville Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
  • Agua Dulce Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
  • Una de Gato Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
  • Buena Vista Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
  • Longoria Cemetery
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
  • Continue List   (7 more) ...
    • San Vicente Cemetery
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for San Vicente Cemetery
      • To give a relative sense of its location, the San Vicente Cemetery is located in La Grulla.
    • Solizes Cemetery
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Cuevitas Cemetery
      (26 miles [41.8 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.<4>

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

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

  • Roma
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
    • Roma is located in Starr County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Roma
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 11,476 people
    • Roma has also been known as:
    • Roma - Los Saenz
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Roma <1>
  • Rio Grande City
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)

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

Newspapers Published in Margarita ...

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 6 newspapers that have been published in the area around Margarita.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Margarita, there are papers which were published within 9 miles [14.5 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Margarita.

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 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 Margarita:

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>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- Margarita) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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 Margarita, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.