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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 Santa Catarina (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 Santa Catarina. 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.

Santa Catarina is located in Starr County.

To see how the shape of Texas' counties may have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Starr County: Brooks, Hidalgo, Jim Hogg & Zapata.

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

  • Starr County     (The home county of Santa Catarina)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Santa Catarina, with the one closest to Santa Catarina listed first.
    • Arkansas City
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
      • Arkansas City is located in Starr County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Arkansas City
    • San Isidro
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Santa Elena
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Delmita
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
    • La Carla
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
      • La Carla is located in Starr County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for La Carla
      • La Carla has also been known as:
      • La Carla Colonia
    • La Victoria
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
      • La Victoria is located in Starr County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for La Victoria
    • La Puerta
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
      • La Puerta is located in Starr County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for La Puerta
    • Las Lomas
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
      • Las Lomas is located in Starr County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Las Lomas
    • Alto Bonito
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
      • Alto Bonito is located in Starr County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Alto Bonito
      • Alto Bonito has also been known as:
      • Alto Bonito Colonia
    • Garciasville
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
    • El Refugio
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
      • El Refugio is located in Starr County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for El Refugio
      • El Refugio has also been known as:
      • El Refugio Colonia
    • Rio Grande City
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
  • Hidalgo County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Santa Catarina, with the one closest to Santa Catarina listed first.
    • McCook
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Citrus City
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Citrus City is located in Hidalgo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Citrus City
    • Monte Christo ‑ Historic
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Monte Christo is located in Hidalgo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Monte Christo
    • Sullivan City
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
    • Laguna Seca
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
      • Laguna Seca is located in Hidalgo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Laguna Seca
    • Cuevitas
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
      • Cuevitas is located in Hidalgo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cuevitas
    • Linn
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
    • Havana
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
      • Havana is located in Hidalgo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Havana
    • La Joya
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
    • Los Ebanos
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
    • Sam Fordyce ‑ Historic
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
      • Sam Fordyce is located in Hidalgo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sam Fordyce
    • Doffing
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Doffing is located in Hidalgo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Doffing
  • Jim Hogg County

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

Cemeteries Near Santa Catarina ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Santa Catarina.

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.

Although we don't have the information ourselves, if you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our list of websites on our Genealogy Helper Page for Santa Catarina - one of the links might be able to help.

If not found below, our Cemetery List for Santa Catarina covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

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

  • Santa Maria Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
  • Coyote Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
  • San Jose Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
  • Tangue Allegre Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
  • Juarez Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
  • Montalvo Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Rojas Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
  • Naranja Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
  • Santa Elena Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
  • Gonzales Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
  • La Paz Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Rancho Viejo Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Continue List   (34 more) ...
    • Soledad Cemetery
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
    • Olivares Cemetery
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
    • Santa Cruz Cemetery
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)

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.<2>

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

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

  • Rio Grande City
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
  • Los Angeles
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
    • Los Angeles is located in Hidalgo County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Los Angeles
  • Havana
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
    • Havana is located in Hidalgo County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Havana

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

Newspapers Published in Santa Catarina ...

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 4 newspapers that have been published in the area around Santa Catarina.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Santa Catarina, there are papers which were published within 24 miles [38.6 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Santa Catarina.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we start with 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 Santa Catarina:

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>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 Santa Catarina, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<3>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 from Point A (ie- Santa Catarina) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.