RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Texas >> Ector County >> Metz >> Genealogy HelperIndex...










Learn About
The Commemorative
Quarter for
Texas

The Commemorative Quarter for Texas





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 Metz (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 Metz. 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 northwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors and hospitals 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.

Metz is located in Ector County.

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 Ector County: Andrews, Crane, Midland, Upton, Ward & Winkler.

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

  • Ector County     (The home county of Metz)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Metz, with the one closest to Metz listed first.
    • Judkins
      (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Judkins
      • Judkins is located in Ector County
    • Penwell
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Penwell have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Penwell
      • Penwell is located in Ector County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Penwell <2>
    • West Odessa
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for West Odessa have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West Odessa
      • West Odessa is located in Ector County
    • Notrees
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Notrees have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Notrees
      • Notrees is located in Ector County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Notrees <2>
    • Goldsmith
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Goldsmith have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Goldsmith
      • Goldsmith is located in Ector County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 277 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Goldsmith <2>
    • Odessa
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Scharbauer City
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Scharbauer City have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Scharbauer City
      • Scharbauer City is located in Ector County
    • Gardendale
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Andrews County
    • Coyote Corner
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Coyote Corner. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Coyote Corner
      • Coyote Corner is located in Andrews County
  • Crane County
    • Crane
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Pecos County
    • Imperial
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
  • Ward County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Metz, with the one closest to Metz listed first.
    • Monahans
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Thorntonville
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Thorntonville have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Thorntonville
      • Thorntonville is located in Ward County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 558 people
    • Wickett
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Wickett have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wickett
      • Wickett is located in Ward County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 558 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Wickett <2>
    • Royalty
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Grandfalls
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Grandfalls have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grandfalls
      • Grandfalls is located in Ward County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 403 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Grandfalls <2>
    • Pyote
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Winkler County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Metz, with the one closest to Metz listed first.
    • Cheyenne
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cheyenne
      • Cheyenne is located in Winkler County
    • Kermit
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
    • Wink
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wink
      • Wink is located in Winkler County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,014 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Wink <2>

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

Cemeteries Near Metz ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Metz.

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 Metz covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

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

  • Monahans Memorial Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Monahans Memorial Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Monahans Memorial Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located in Monahans.
    • The Monahans Memorial Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Municipal Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2138721 <4>
  • Rose Hill Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
  • Los Angeles Gardens Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
  • Odessa Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
  • Sunset Memorial Gardens
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Sunset Memorial Gardens
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Sunset Memorial Gardens have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Pyote Cemetery
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Pyote Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Pyote Cemetery is located outside and to the east of Pyote.
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2228433 <4>
  • Tamarisk Cemetery
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Tamarisk Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Tamarisk Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located less than 2 miles<5> to the northwest of Grandfalls.
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #7172 <4>
  • Crane Memorial Gardens
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Crane Memorial Gardens
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Crane Memorial Gardens have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • County South Cemetery
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the County South Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the County South Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.

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.<6>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that in 1895, Metz had railroad service and no post office.

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

  • Douro
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Douro have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Douro
    • Douro is located in Ector County
  • Odessa
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
  • Pyote
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Warfield
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Warfield have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Warfield
    • Warfield is located in Midland County

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

Newspapers Published in Metz ...

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 32 newspapers that have been published in the area around Metz.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Metz, there are papers which were published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<5>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Metz.

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 Metz:

Unfortunately, we don't know of a website for Metz. If you can help, please contact us through our Feedback Page.

The official website for Ector County: www.co.ector.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>An 'estimated' location is one where we have been given GPS coordinates, but are unable to verify the accuracy of those coordinates. That said, we have some confidence that we have placed the marker near the actual location. A typical reason for being unable to verify a location is that it might be on private property or maybe historic and gone without an obvious trace.
<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>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- Metz) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Metz. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 31.7035, Longitude: -102.6571       In this case, the coordinates for Metz have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>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 Metz, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

Copyright 2025
All Rights Reserved

Thank you for visiting our website.

In closing, please keep in mind that we can not guarantee the accuracy or timeliness of the information on this website, so use with care. We encourage you to double-check the information that is critical to you.

If you've found an error or have additional information that you would like to share, please don't hesitate to write: Click here to contact us.

This page was last modified/updated: 29 Apr 2025