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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 Merkel (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 Merkel. 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 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.

Merkel is located in Taylor 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 Taylor County: Callahan, Coleman, Fisher, Jones, Nolan, Runnels & Shackelford.

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

  • Taylor County     (The home county of Merkel)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Merkel, with the one closest to Merkel listed first.
    • Mount Pleasant
      (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
      • Mount Pleasant is located in Taylor County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mount Pleasant
    • Trent
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Tye
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
      • Tye is located in Taylor County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tye
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,341 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Tye <1>
    • Impact
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
      • Impact is located in Taylor County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Impact
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 31 people
    • Abilene
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
    • Buffalo Gap
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Tuscola
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Hamby
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
    • Potosi
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Ovalo
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
    • Guion
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
      • Guion is located in Taylor County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Guion
    • Lawn
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Callahan County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Merkel, with the one closest to Merkel listed first.
    • Eula
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
    • Clyde
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
      • Clyde is located in Callahan County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clyde
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 3,881 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Clyde <1>
  • Fisher County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Merkel, with the one closest to Merkel listed first.
    • Sylvester
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
    • McCaulley
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
      • McCaulley is located in Fisher County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for McCaulley
    • Roby
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Royston
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Hamlin
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
    • Capitola
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
  • Jones County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Merkel, with the one closest to Merkel listed first.
    • Stith
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Hawley
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Anson
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
    • Fort Phantom Hill ‑ Historic
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
      • Fort Phantom Hill is located in Jones County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fort Phantom Hill
    • Funston
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Radium
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
  • Nolan County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Merkel, with the one closest to Merkel listed first.
    • Nolan
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Sweetwater
      (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
    • Avenger Village
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
      • Avenger Village is located in Nolan County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Avenger Village
    • Hylton
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Maryneal
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Roscoe
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
  • Runnels County

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

Cemeteries Near Merkel ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Merkel.

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

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Merkel, with the one closest to Merkel 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.<3>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Merkel had a population of 353 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Merkel had a population of 2,629 people.

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

  • Trent
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
  • Eskota
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
    • Eskota is located in Fisher County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eskota
  • Buffalo Gap
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Abilene
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
  • Anson
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
  • Elmdale
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
    • Elmdale is located in Taylor County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elmdale
  • Neinda
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
    • Neinda is located in Jones County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Neinda
  • Phantom Hill
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Phantom Hill is located in Jones County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Phantom Hill
  • Sweetwater
    (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
  • Guion
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
    • Guion is located in Taylor County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Guion
  • Hylton
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Roby
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
  • Clyde
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
    • Clyde is located in Callahan County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clyde
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 3,881 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Clyde <1>

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Merkel ...

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 69 newspapers that have been published in the area around Merkel.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Merkel. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Merkel and those printed in the larger area surrounding Merkel.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<4> of Merkel.

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 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 Merkel:

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 Merkel, 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 from Point A (ie- Merkel) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.