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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 Sylvester (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 Sylvester. 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 northwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals were in the next county to the west. 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 west 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.

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

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

  • Fisher County     (The home county of Sylvester)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Sylvester, with the one closest to Sylvester listed first.
    • McCaulley
      (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
      • McCaulley is located in Fisher County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for McCaulley
    • Royston
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Royston is located in Fisher County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Royston
    • Roby
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Hamlin
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Rotan
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Capitola
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Capitola is located in Fisher County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Capitola
    • Claytonville
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
      • Claytonville is located in Fisher County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Claytonville
    • Hobbs
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
      • Hobbs is located in Fisher County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hobbs
  • Haskell County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Sylvester, with the one closest to Sylvester listed first.
    • Sagerton
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Stamford
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Jones County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Sylvester, with the one closest to Sylvester listed first.
    • Radium
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Radium is located in Jones County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Radium
    • Anson
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
    • Stith
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
      • Stith is located in Jones County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stith
    • Tuxedo
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
      • Tuxedo is located in Jones County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tuxedo
    • Funston
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
      • Funston is located in Jones County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Funston
    • Hawley
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
  • Nolan County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Sylvester, with the one closest to Sylvester listed first.
    • Sweetwater
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Avenger Village
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Avenger Village is located in Nolan County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Avenger Village
    • Roscoe
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Wastella ‑ Historic
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
      • Wastella is located in Nolan County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wastella
    • Nolan
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
  • Scurry County
  • Stonewall County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Sylvester, with the one closest to Sylvester listed first.
    • Flat Top
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
      • Flat Top is located in Stonewall County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Flat Top
    • Aspermont
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
    • Double Mountain
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
      • Double Mountain is located in Stonewall County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Double Mountain
    • Old Glory
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
  • Taylor County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Sylvester, with the one closest to Sylvester listed first.
    • Trent
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Merkel
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Mount Pleasant
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Mount Pleasant is located in Taylor County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mount Pleasant
    • Tye
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Tye is located in Taylor County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tye
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,341 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Tye <1>

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

Cemeteries Near Sylvester ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Sylvester.

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

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

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

  • Sylvester Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
  • Roby Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
  • Fisher Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Palava Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Afton Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
  • Mt. Zion Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
  • Rotan Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Sardis Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
  • Hamlin Memorial Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hamlin Memorial Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Hamlin Memorial Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located outside and to the northeast of Hamlin.
    • The Hamlin Memorial Cemetery has also been known as:
    • East Cemetery
    • Hamlin East Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #3335 <2>
  • North Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
  • North Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Anderson Chapel Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
  • Continue List   (33 more) ...
    • Dowell Cemetery
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Garden of memories Cemetery
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
    • Trent Cemetery
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)

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

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

  • Roby
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
  • Fisher
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Fisher is located in Fisher County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fisher
  • Neinda
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Neinda is located in Jones County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Neinda
  • Hitson
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
    • Hitson is located in Fisher County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hitson
  • Eskota
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
    • Eskota is located in Fisher County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eskota
  • Claytonville
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Claytonville is located in Fisher County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Claytonville
  • Trent
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
  • Sweetwater
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
  • Anson
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
  • Hobbs
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
    • Hobbs is located in Fisher County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hobbs
  • Merkel
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
  • Roscoe
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Aspermont
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)

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

Newspapers Published in Sylvester ...

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 43 newspapers that have been published in the area around Sylvester.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Sylvester, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Sylvester.

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 helpful 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 Sylvester:

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 '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- Sylvester) 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 Sylvester, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.