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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 Rotan (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 Rotan. 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.

Rotan is located in Fisher 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 Fisher County: Jones, Kent, Mitchell, Nolan, Scurry, Stonewall & Taylor.

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

  • Fisher County     (The home county of Rotan)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Rotan, with the one closest to Rotan listed first.
    • Roby
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Roby have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Roby
      • Roby is located in Fisher County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 613 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Roby <2>
    • Royston
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
    • Hobbs
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
      • 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
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Hobbs
      • From Rotan to Hobbs
    • McCaulley
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for McCaulley have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for McCaulley
      • McCaulley is located in Fisher County
    • Sylvester
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Sylvester have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sylvester
      • Sylvester is located in Fisher County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Sylvester <2>
    • Capitola
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
    • Claytonville
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
    • Hamlin
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Hamlin have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hamlin
      • Hamlin is located in Fisher County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,997 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Hamlin <2>
  • Jones County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Rotan, with the one closest to Rotan listed first.
    • Radium
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
    • Tuxedo
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
  • Kent County
  • Nolan County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Rotan, with the one closest to Rotan listed first.
    • Sweetwater
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Sweetwater have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sweetwater
      • Sweetwater is located in Nolan County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 10,535 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Sweetwater <2>
    • Wastella ‑ Historic
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Wastella have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wastella
      • Wastella is located in Nolan County
    • Avenger Village
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Avenger Village have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Avenger Village
      • Avenger Village is located in Nolan County
    • Roscoe
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
  • Scurry County
  • Stonewall County

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

Cemeteries Near Rotan ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Rotan.

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Rotan, with the one closest to Rotan 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 Rotan in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Rotan.

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

  • Fisher
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Fisher have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fisher
    • Fisher is located in Fisher County
  • Roby
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Roby have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Roby
    • Roby is located in Fisher County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 613 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Roby <2>
  • Hobbs
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
    • 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
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Hobbs
    • From Rotan to Hobbs
  • Hitson
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Hitson have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hitson
    • Hitson is located in Fisher County
  • Claytonville
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
  • Double Mountain
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
  • Neinda
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Neinda have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Neinda
    • Neinda is located in Jones County
  • Aspermont
    (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
  • Sweetwater
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Sweetwater have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sweetwater
    • Sweetwater is located in Nolan County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 10,535 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Sweetwater <2>
  • Eskota
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Eskota have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eskota
    • Eskota is located in Fisher County
  • Jayton
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
  • Snyder
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
  • Roscoe
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Rotan ...

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 37 newspapers that have been published in the area around Rotan.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Rotan. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Rotan and those printed in the larger area surrounding Rotan.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 28 miles [45.1 km]<4> of Rotan.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we like to start with 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 Rotan:

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

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>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- Rotan) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Rotan. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 32.8549, Longitude: -100.4630    
<5>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.
<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 Rotan, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 29 Apr 2025