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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 Rio Bravo (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 Rio Bravo. 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 Rio Bravo ...

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.

Rio Bravo has also been known as: Rio Bravo Colonia.

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 northeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals were in the next county to the east. 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 east 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.

Rio Bravo is located in Val Verde 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 Val Verde County: Crockett, Edwards, Kinney, Sutton & Terrell.

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

  • Val Verde County     (The home county of Rio Bravo)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Rio Bravo, with the one closest to Rio Bravo listed first.
    • Del Rio
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Cienegas Terrace
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Cienegas Terrace have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cienegas Terrace
      • Cienegas Terrace is located in Val Verde County
      • Cienegas Terrace has also been known as:
      • Cienegas Terrace Colonia
    • Val Verde Park
      (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Val Verde Park have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Val Verde Park
      • Val Verde Park is located in Val Verde County
      • Val Verde Park has also been known as:
      • Val Verde Park Colonia
    • Lake View
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Lake View have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lake View
      • Lake View is located in Val Verde County
    • Johnstone
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Johnstone. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Johnstone
      • Johnstone is located in Val Verde County
    • Amistad Village
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Amistad Village
      • Amistad Village is located in Val Verde County
    • Amistad Acres
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Amistad Acres
      • Amistad Acres is located in Val Verde County
      • Amistad Acres has also been known as:
      • Amistad
    • Box Canyon - Amistad
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Box Canyon - Amistad
      • Box Canyon - Amistad is located in Val Verde County
    • Comstock
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
  • Kinney County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Rio Bravo, with the one closest to Rio Bravo listed first.
    • Standart
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Standart. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Standart
      • Standart is located in Kinney County
    • Brackettville
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)

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

Cemeteries Near Rio Bravo ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Rio Bravo.

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

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

  • Old San Felipe Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Old San Felipe Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Old San Felipe Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • San Felipe Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the San Felipe Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the San Felipe Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Masonic Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Masonic Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Masonic Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located outside and to the west of Del Rio.
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #1960114 <4>
  • Sacred Heart Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Sacred Heart Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Sacred Heart Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located outside and to the west of Del Rio.
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #268157 <4>
  • St. Joseph's Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Joseph's Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the St. Joseph's Cemetery is located outside and to the southwest of Del Rio.
    • The St. Joseph's Cemetery has also been known as:
    • St. Jose Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2484548 <4>
  • Westlawn Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Westlawn Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Westlawn Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located outside and to the west of Del Rio.
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #7567 <4>
  • Oaklawn Memorial Park
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Oaklawn Memorial Park
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Oaklawn Memorial Park have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Seminole Indian Scout Cemetery
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Seminole Indian Scout Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Seminole Indian Scout Cemetery is located 3 miles [4.8 km]<5> to the northeast of Brackettville.
    • The Seminole Indian Scout Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Fort Clark Springs Indian Scout Cemetery
    • Seminole Negro Indian Scout Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #6838 <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 Rio Bravo in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Rio Bravo.

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

  • Del Rio
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
  • Johnstone
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Johnstone. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Johnstone
    • Johnstone is located in Val Verde County
  • Amanda
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Amanda have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Amanda
    • Amanda is located in Kinney County
  • Standart
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Standart. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Standart
    • Standart is located in Kinney County
  • Comstock
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
  • Brackettville
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)

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

Newspapers Published in Rio Bravo ...

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 15 newspapers that have been published in the area around Rio Bravo.

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

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first turn to 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 Rio Bravo:

Unfortunately, we don't know of a website for Rio Bravo. 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 '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- Rio Bravo) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Rio Bravo. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 29.3322, Longitude: -100.9143       In this case, the coordinates for Rio Bravo 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 Rio Bravo, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 29 Apr 2025