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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 Thorntonville (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 Thorntonville. 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 southeast 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 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 east 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.

Thorntonville is located in Ward 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 Ward County: Crane, Ector, Loving, Pecos, Reeves & Winkler.

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

  • Ward County     (The home county of Thorntonville)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Thorntonville, with the one closest to Thorntonville listed first.
    • Monahans
      (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Wickett
      (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Wickett have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wickett
      • Wickett is located in Ward County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 558 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Wickett <1>
    • Pyote
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
    • Royalty
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
    • Grandfalls
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Grandfalls have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grandfalls
      • Grandfalls is located in Ward County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 403 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Grandfalls <1>
    • Barstow
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
  • Ector County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Thorntonville, with the one closest to Thorntonville listed first.
    • Judkins
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Judkins
      • Judkins is located in Ector County
    • Penwell
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Penwell have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Penwell
      • Penwell is located in Ector County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Penwell <1>
    • Notrees
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Notrees have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Notrees
      • Notrees is located in Ector County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Notrees <1>
    • West Odessa
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for West Odessa have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West Odessa
      • West Odessa is located in Ector County
  • Pecos County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Thorntonville, with the one closest to Thorntonville listed first.
    • Coyanosa
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Coyanosa have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Coyanosa
      • Coyanosa is located in Pecos County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Coyanosa <1>
    • Imperial
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Abell City
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Abell City have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Abell City
      • Abell City is located in Pecos County
  • Winkler County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Thorntonville, with the one closest to Thorntonville listed first.
    • Wink
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wink
      • Wink is located in Winkler County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,014 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Wink <1>
    • Cheyenne
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cheyenne
      • Cheyenne is located in Winkler County
    • Kermit
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)

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

Newspapers Published in Thorntonville ...

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 16 newspapers that have been published in the area around Thorntonville.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Thorntonville, there are papers which were published within 28 miles [45.1 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Thorntonville.

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 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 Thorntonville:

Cemeteries Near Thorntonville ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Thorntonville.

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

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

  • Monahans Memorial Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
  • Wilks Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Wilks Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Wilks Cemetery
  • Tamarisk Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Tamarisk Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Tamarisk Cemetery

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.<5>

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

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

  • Pyote
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
  • Metz
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Metz have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Metz
    • Metz is located in Ector County
  • Douro
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Douro have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Douro
    • Douro is located in Ector County
  • Barstow
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)

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

Unfortunately, we don't know of a website for Thorntonville. 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>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- Thorntonville) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Thorntonville. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 31.5788, Longitude: -102.9220       In this case, the coordinates for Thorntonville have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<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>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 Thorntonville, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024