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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 Van Alstyne (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 Van Alstyne. 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.

Name Variations for Van Alstyne ...

When searching records, keep in mind that names and their spelling can change over time. Our sources include documents like maps, railroad schedules, Travel, Express and Shipping Guides. Many of these documents date from the 1800's and it's common to find spelling differences.

Although we can't give a definitive list, hopefully the following will give you a feel for the variations that might have occurred.

Another variation: Van Alystyne.

If you have information about these names (such as the reason for the change, date of change, the origin of the name), please Contact Us.

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 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 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.

Van Alstyne is primarily located in Collin County. A portion of Van Alstyne extends into Grayson 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 Collin County: Dallas, Denton, Fannin, Grayson, Hunt & Rockwall.

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

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

Cemeteries Near Van Alstyne ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Van Alstyne.

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Van Alstyne, with the one closest to Van Alstyne 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>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Van Alstyne had a population of 737 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Van Alstyne had a population of 4,633 people.

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

  • Elmont
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Elmont have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elmont
    • Elmont is located in Grayson County
  • Farmington
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Farmington have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Farmington
    • Farmington is located in Grayson County
  • Anna
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
  • Cannon
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Cannon have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cannon
    • Cannon is located in Grayson County
  • Howe
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
  • Sedalia
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Sedalia. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sedalia
    • Sedalia is located in Collin County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Sedalia
    • From Van Alstyne to Sedalia
  • Weston
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
  • White Mound
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for White Mound have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for White Mound
    • White Mound is located in Grayson County
  • Pilot Grove
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
  • Tom Bean
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
  • Melissa
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
  • Roland
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Roland. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Roland
    • Roland is located in Collin County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Roland
    • From Van Alstyne to Roland
  • Continue List   (17 more) ...
    • Kentucky Town
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Luella
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
    • Elm View
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Elm View have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elm View
      • Elm View is located in Grayson County

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

Newspapers Published in Van Alstyne ...

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 98 newspapers that have been published in the area around Van Alstyne.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Van Alstyne, there are papers which were published within 25 miles [40.2 km]<7>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Van Alstyne.

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 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 Van Alstyne:

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

The official website for Collin County: www.co.collin.tx.us/

The official website for State of Texas: https://texas.gov/

Footnotes ...

<1>If we found a location and have questions about the accuracy of our information, we will simply say that the marker is 'in the vicinity'. We are not confident about the location and the position of our marker is only a rough guide. If we have too many doubts about the location, we will not include it in our database.
<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>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.
<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 Van Alstyne, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<7>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- Van Alstyne) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Van Alstyne. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 33.4234, Longitude: -96.5781    









 

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In closing, please keep in mind that we can not guarantee the accuracy or timeliness of the information on this website, so use with care. We encourage you to double-check the information that is critical to you.

If you've found an error or have additional information that you would like to share, please don't hesitate to write: Click here to contact us.

This page was last modified/updated: 29 Apr 2025