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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 Paynes Corner (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 Paynes Corner. 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 Paynes Corner ...

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.

  • A typical abbreviation for Paynes Corner: Paynes Cor. (or less commonly used: Paynes Crn.)
  • While the name of this community is Paynes Corner, be aware that it's the common practice of mapmakers to remove the apostrophe from possessive names<1>. So Paynes Corner may originally have been Payne's Corner.

    Sometimes the trailing 's' might be dropped altogether, in which case Paynes Corner might be written as Payne Corner.

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 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.

Paynes Corner is located in Gaines 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 Gaines County: Lea (NM), Andrews, Dawson, Martin, Terry & Yoakum.

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

  • Gaines County     (The home county of Paynes Corner)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Paynes Corner, with the one closest to Paynes Corner listed first.
    • Seminole
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
    • Denver City
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
    • Seagraves
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Loop
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
  • Andrews County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Paynes Corner, with the one closest to Paynes Corner listed first.
    • Florey
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Florey
      • Florey is located in Andrews County
    • Frankel City ‑ Historic
      (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Frankel City have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Frankel City
      • Frankel City is located in Andrews County
    • Shafter Lake ‑ Historic
      (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Shafter Lake have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shafter Lake
      • Shafter Lake is located in Andrews County
  • Terry County
    • Wellman
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Wellman have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wellman
      • Wellman is located in Terry County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 200 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Wellman <2>
  • Lea County (NM)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Paynes Corner, with the one closest to Paynes Corner listed first.
    • Hobbs
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hobbs
      • Hobbs is located in Lea County (NM)
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 39,339 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Hobbs <2>
    • Air Base City
      (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Air Base City have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Air Base City
      • Air Base City is located in Lea County (NM)
    • Humble City
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Humble City have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Humble City
      • Humble City is located in Lea County (NM)
    • Jones City
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Jones City have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jones City
      • Jones City is located in Lea County (NM)
    • Eunice
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eunice
      • Eunice is located in Lea County (NM)
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 3,049 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Eunice <2>
    • Monument
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)

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

Cemeteries Near Paynes Corner ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Paynes Corner.

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

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

  • Gaines County Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Gaines County Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Gaines County Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located outside and to the south of Seminole.
    • The Gaines County Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Gaines County South Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2218389 <4>
  • Gaines County Memorial Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
  • Denver City Memorial Park
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
  • Prairie Haven Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Prairie Haven Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Prairie Haven Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Everglades Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Everglades Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Everglades Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Memdry Gardens
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Memdry Gardens
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Memdry Gardens have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Boone Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
  • Memorial Park
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Memorial Park
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Memorial Park have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Gaines County Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Gaines County Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Gaines County Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located outside and to the northeast of Seagraves.
    • The Gaines County Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Seagraves Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #301151 <4>
  • Continue List   (6 more) ...
    • Pleasant Hill Cemetery
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
    • Knowles Cemetery
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Knowles Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Knowles Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Shafter Lake Cemetery
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
    • Monument Cemetery
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Monument Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Monument Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Brunson Memorial Cemetery
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Antioch Baptist Church Cemetery
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)

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

Newspapers Published in Paynes Corner ...

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 28 newspapers that have been published in the area around Paynes Corner.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Paynes Corner, there are papers which were published within 28 miles [45.1 km]<5>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Paynes Corner.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first visit 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 Paynes Corner:

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

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

Footnotes ...

<1>It's generally believed that possessive apostrophes are removed to prevent confusion on maps where the apostrophe may be confused with a cartographic symbol. While this is generally true, it's not uncommon to find possessive apostrophes in administrative names (such as towns or counties).
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<3>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.
<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' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Paynes Corner) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Paynes Corner. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 32.7257, Longitude: -102.7949       In this case, the coordinates for Paynes Corner have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 29 Apr 2025