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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 Shawville (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 Shawville. 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 northeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals and doctors 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.

Shawville is located in Coke 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 Coke County: Mitchell, Nolan, Runnels, Sterling & Tom Green.

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

  • Coke County     (The home county of Shawville)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Shawville, with the one closest to Shawville listed first.
    • Bronte
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
    • Tennyson
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Fort Chadbourne
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
      • Fort Chadbourne is also located in Coke County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fort Chadbourne
    • Robert Lee
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
    • Blackwell
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
    • Sanco ‑ Historic
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
      • Sanco was located in Coke County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sanco
    • Edith
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
      • Edith is also located in Coke County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Edith
    • Silver ‑ Historic
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Concho County
  • Nolan County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Shawville, with the one closest to Shawville listed first.
    • Hylton
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
      • Hylton is located in Nolan County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hylton
    • Maryneal
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
    • Nolan
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
  • Runnels County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Shawville, with the one closest to Shawville listed first.
    • Maverick ‑ Historic
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
      • Maverick was located in Runnels County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Maverick
    • Norton
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
    • Wingate
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Miles
      (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
    • Rowena
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Winters
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
    • Ballinger
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
  • Tom Green County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Shawville, with the one closest to Shawville listed first.
    • Orient
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
      • Orient is located in Tom Green County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Orient
    • Grape Creek
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
      • Grape Creek is located in Tom Green County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grape Creek
    • Veribest
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
      • Veribest is located in Tom Green County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Veribest
    • Carlsbad
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
    • San Angelo
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
    • Water Valley
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Mereta
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)

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

Cemeteries Near Shawville ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Shawville.

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 Shawville - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • Fairview Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fairview Cemetery
    • The Fairview Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located outside and to the south of Bronte.
    • The Fairview Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Bronte Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #3543 <2>
  • Maverick Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
  • Castleberry Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
  • Indian Creek Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Norton Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
  • Mule Creek Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
  • Mt. Victory Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Ft. Chadbourne Town Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ft. Chadbourne Town Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Ft. Chadbourne Town Cemetery is located less than 2 miles<3> to the southwest of Fort Chadbourne.
    • The Ft. Chadbourne Town Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Ft. Chadbourne Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2350087 <2>
  • Hayrick Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Robert Lee Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
  • Ross Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
  • Wilmeth Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
  • Continue List   (38 more) ...
    • Ft. Chadbourne Cemetery
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
    • Blackwell Cemetery
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
    • Paint Creek Cemetery
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)

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.<4>

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

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

  • Bronte
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
  • Maverick ‑ Historic
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Maverick was located in Runnels County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Maverick
  • Fort Chadbourne
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
    • Fort Chadbourne is also located in Coke County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fort Chadbourne
  • Robert Lee
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
  • Sanco ‑ Historic
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Sanco was located in Coke County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sanco
  • Miles
    (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
  • Edith
    (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
    • Edith is also located in Coke County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Edith
  • Rowena
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
  • Hylton
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
    • Hylton is located in Nolan County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hylton
  • Winters
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
  • Ballinger
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
  • Water Valley
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
  • San Angelo
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
  • Silver ‑ Historic
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)

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

Newspapers Published in Shawville ...

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 47 newspapers that have been published in the area around Shawville.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Shawville, there are papers which were published within 27 miles [43.5 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Shawville.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we begin 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 Shawville:

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 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.
<3>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Shawville) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<4>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 Shawville, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.