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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 Petersburg (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 Petersburg. 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 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 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.

Petersburg is located in Hale 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 Hale County: Castro, Crosby, Floyd, Hockley, Lamb, Lubbock & Swisher.

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

  • Hale County     (The home county of Petersburg)
  • Crosby County
  • Floyd County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Petersburg, with the one closest to Petersburg listed first.
    • Floydada
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Floydada have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Floydada
      • Floydada is located in Floyd County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,654 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Floydada <1>
    • Aiken
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Aiken have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Aiken
      • Aiken is located in Floyd County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Aiken <1>
    • Lockney
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Lockney have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lockney
      • Lockney is located in Floyd County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,619 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Lockney <1>
    • Della Plain ‑ Historic
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Sterley ‑ Historic
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Sterley have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sterley
      • Sterley is located in Floyd County
    • Dougherty
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
    • Cedar Hill
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Cedar Hill have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cedar Hill
      • Cedar Hill is located in Floyd County
    • South Plains
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Hockley County
  • Lubbock County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Petersburg, with the one closest to Petersburg listed first.
    • Becton
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Heckville ‑ Historic
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Heckville have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Heckville
      • Heckville is located in Lubbock County
    • Idalou
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
    • Kitalou
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
    • New Deal
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for New Deal have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for New Deal
      • New Deal is located in Lubbock County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 841 people
    • Canyon
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
    • Ransom Canyon
      (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Ransom Canyon have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ransom Canyon
      • Ransom Canyon is located in Lubbock County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,126 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Ransom Canyon <1>
    • Buffalo Springs
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Buffalo Springs have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Buffalo Springs
      • Buffalo Springs is located in Lubbock County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 441 people
    • Lubbock
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Shallowater
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Posey
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
    • Slaton
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
    • Reese Village
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Reese Village have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Reese Village
      • Reese Village is located in Lubbock County

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

Cemeteries Near Petersburg ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Petersburg.

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Petersburg, with the one closest to Petersburg 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.<6>

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

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

  • Estacado ‑ Historic
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
  • Cone
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
  • Floydada
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Floydada have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Floydada
    • Floydada is located in Floyd County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,654 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Floydada <1>
  • Lockney
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Lockney have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lockney
    • Lockney is located in Floyd County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,619 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Lockney <1>
  • Della Plain ‑ Historic
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
  • Hale City ‑ Historic
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Hale City have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hale City
    • Hale City is located in Hale County
  • Plainview
    (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
  • Mount Blanco ‑ Historic
    (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
  • Lubbock
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)

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

Newspapers Published in Petersburg ...

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 50 newspapers that have been published in the area around Petersburg.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Petersburg, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<5>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Petersburg.

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 Petersburg:

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

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

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 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.
<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 obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Petersburg) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Petersburg. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 33.8705, Longitude: -101.5979    
<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 Petersburg, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 29 Apr 2025