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The Commemorative Quarter for Texas





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 Vega (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 Vega. 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 hospitals and doctors 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.

Vega is located in Oldham County and is the County Seat.

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 Oldham County: Quay (NM), Deaf Smith, Hartley, Moore & Potter.

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

  • Oldham County     (The home county of Vega)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Vega, with the one closest to Vega listed first.
    • Wildorado
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Wildorado have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wildorado
      • Wildorado is located in Oldham County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Wildorado <2>
    • Adrian
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Adrian have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Adrian
      • Adrian is located in Oldham County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 171 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Adrian <2>
    • Tascosa ‑ Historic
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Tascosa have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tascosa
      • Tascosa is located in Oldham County
    • Boise ‑ Historic
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Boise have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Boise
      • Boise is located in Oldham County
  • Deaf Smith County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Vega, with the one closest to Vega listed first.
    • La Plata ‑ Historic
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for La Plata. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for La Plata
      • La Plata is located in Deaf Smith County
    • Dawn
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Dawn have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dawn
      • Dawn is located in Deaf Smith County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Dawn <2>
    • Hereford
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
  • Hartley County
    • Channing
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
  • Potter County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Vega, with the one closest to Vega listed first.
    • Bushland
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Bushland have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bushland
      • Bushland is located in Potter County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Bushland <2>
    • Bishop Hills
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Bishop Hills have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bishop Hills
      • Bishop Hills is located in Potter County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 173 people
    • Soncy
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
  • Randall County

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Vega ...

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 19 newspapers that have been published in the area around Vega.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Vega. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Vega and those printed in the larger area surrounding Vega.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<4> of Vega.

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 Vega:

Cemeteries Near Vega ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Vega.

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

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

  • Memorial Park
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Memorial Park have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Memorial Park
  • Palo Duro Wildorado Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Old La Plata Grave
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for the Old La Plata Grave. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Old La Plata Grave
  • Muncy Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Muncy Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Muncy Cemetery
  • Boot Hill Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Boot Hill Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Boot Hill Cemetery
  • Tascosa Cemetery
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Tascosa Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Tascosa Cemetery
  • Rest Lawn Memorial Park
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Rest Lawn Memorial Park is a large cemetery that is located outside and to the north of Hereford.
    • The Rest Lawn Memorial Park has also been known as:
    • Rest Lawn Cemetery
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Rest Lawn Memorial Park
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #6324 <5>
  • St. Mary Cemetery
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Mary Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Mary Cemetery
  • Townsend Cemetery
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Townsend Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Townsend Cemetery
  • St. Anthony's Cemetery
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
  • Arnot Cemetery
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Arnot Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Arnot Cemetery
  • West Park Cemetery
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)

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>

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

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

  • Tascosa ‑ Historic
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Tascosa have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tascosa
    • Tascosa is located in Oldham County
  • La Plata ‑ Historic
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for La Plata. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for La Plata
    • La Plata is located in Deaf Smith County
  • Ady
    (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Ady have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ady
    • Ady is located in Potter County
  • Dawn
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Dawn have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dawn
    • Dawn is located in Deaf Smith County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Dawn <2>

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

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

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

Footnotes ...

<1>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.
<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>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Vega) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Vega. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 35.2457, Longitude: -102.4262       In this case, the coordinates for Vega have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<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 Vega, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024