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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 Polar (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 Polar. 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.

Polar is located in Kent 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 Kent County: Crosby, Dickens, Fisher, Garza, King, Scurry & Stonewall.

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

  • Kent County     (The home county of Polar)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Polar, with the one closest to Polar listed first.
    • Clairemont
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clairemont
      • Clairemont is located in Kent County
    • Jayton
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Girard
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Girard have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Girard
      • Girard is located in Kent County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Girard <1>
  • Fisher County
    • Hobbs
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Hobbs. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hobbs
      • Hobbs is located in Fisher County
  • Garza County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Polar, with the one closest to Polar listed first.
    • Justiceburg
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
    • Verbena ‑ Historic
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Verbena have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Verbena
      • Verbena is located in Garza County
    • Post
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Post
      • Post is located in Garza County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 5,123 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Post <1>
  • Scurry County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Polar, with the one closest to Polar listed first.
    • Fluvanna
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Fluvanna have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fluvanna
      • Fluvanna is located in Scurry County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Fluvanna <1>
    • Snyder
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
    • Hermleigh
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)

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

Cemeteries Near Polar ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Polar.

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

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

  • Polar Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Polar Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Polar Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Bookout Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
  • Justiceburg Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
  • Fluvanna Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Clairemont Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Clairemont Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Clairemont Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Cottonwood Flat Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
  • Riverdale Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Riverdale Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Riverdale Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Cross H Ranch Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Cross H Ranch Cemetery
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for the Cross H Ranch Cemetery. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Cross H Ranch Cemetery is located 7 miles [11.3 km]<5> to the west of Post.
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2393085 <4>
  • Snyder Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Snyder Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Snyder Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • York Cemetery
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the York Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the York Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #7794 <4>
  • Terrace Cemetery
    (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Terrace Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Terrace Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located outside and to the east of Post.
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #7207 <4>
  • Hillside Memorial Gardens
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
  • Continue List   (7 more) ...
    • Grady Cemetery
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Grady Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Grady Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Camp Springs Cemetery
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Camp Springs Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Camp Springs Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Kate McCommis Grave
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Kate McCommis Grave
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for the Kate McCommis Grave. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
      • To give a relative sense of its location, the Kate McCommis Grave is located 2 miles [3.2 km]<5> to the northeast of Post.
      • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2382811 <4>

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 Polar in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Polar.

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

  • Snyder
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
  • Knapp
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Knapp have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Knapp
    • Knapp is located in Scurry County
  • Hobbs
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Hobbs. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hobbs
    • Hobbs is located in Fisher County
  • Jayton
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)

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

Newspapers Published in Polar ...

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 14 newspapers that have been published in the area around Polar.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Polar, 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 Polar.

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 websites either 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 Polar:

Unfortunately, we don't know of a website for Polar. 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- Polar) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Polar. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 33.0334, Longitude: -100.9890       In this case, the coordinates for Polar 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 Polar, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 29 Apr 2025