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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 Velasco (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 Velasco. 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 and doctors 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.

Velasco is located in Brazoria 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 Brazoria County: Fort Bend, Galveston, Harris, Matagorda & Wharton.

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

  • Brazoria County     (The home county of Velasco)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Velasco, with the one closest to Velasco listed first.
    • Freeport
      (Less than 2 miles to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Freeport have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Freeport
      • Freeport is located in Brazoria County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 12,126 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Freeport <2>
    • Oyster Creek
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Oyster Creek have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oyster Creek
      • Oyster Creek is located in Brazoria County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,212 people
    • Quintana
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Surfside Beach
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Surfside Beach have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Surfside Beach
      • Surfside Beach is located in Brazoria County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 589 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Surfside Beach <2>
    • Clute
      (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Clute have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clute
      • Clute is located in Brazoria County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 11,724 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Clute <2>
    • Jones Creek
      (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Richwood
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Richwood have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Richwood
      • Richwood is located in Brazoria County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 4,015 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Richwood <2>
    • Lake Jackson
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Lake Jackson have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lake Jackson
      • Lake Jackson is located in Brazoria County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 27,063 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Lake Jackson <2>
    • Bastrop Beach
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bastrop Beach
      • Bastrop Beach is located in Brazoria County
    • Brazoria
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Angleton
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Angleton have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Angleton
      • Angleton is located in Brazoria County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 19,521 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Angleton <2>
    • Bailey's Prairie
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bailey's Prairie
      • Bailey's Prairie is located in Brazoria County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 777 people
    • San Luis ‑ Historic
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for San Luis. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for San Luis
      • San Luis is located in Brazoria County
  • Galveston County
    • Jamaica Beach
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Jamaica Beach have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jamaica Beach
      • Jamaica Beach is located in Galveston County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,076 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Jamaica Beach <2>
  • Matagorda County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Velasco, with the one closest to Velasco listed first.
    • Sargent
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Cedar Lane
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Cedar Lane have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cedar Lane
      • Cedar Lane is located in Matagorda County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Cedar Lane <2>
    • Caney
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Caney have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Caney
      • Caney is located in Matagorda County

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Velasco ...

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 33 newspapers that have been published in the area around Velasco.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Velasco. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Velasco and those printed in the larger area surrounding Velasco.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<4> of Velasco.

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 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 Velasco:

Cemeteries Near Velasco ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Velasco.

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Velasco, with the one closest to Velasco 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 Velasco had a population of 475 people in 1895 with a post office and no railroad service.

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

  • Quintana
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
  • Oyster Creek
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Oyster Creek have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oyster Creek
    • Oyster Creek is located in Brazoria County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,212 people
  • Hinkles Ferry
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Hinkles Ferry have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hinkles Ferry
    • Hinkles Ferry is located in Brazoria County
  • Brazoria
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
  • Chenango
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Chenango have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chenango
    • Chenango is located in Brazoria County
  • Liverpool
    (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
  • Bonney
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Bonney have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bonney
    • Bonney is located in Brazoria County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 380 people
  • Alvin
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Alvin have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Alvin
    • Alvin is located in Brazoria County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 27,140 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Alvin <2>
  • Caney
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Caney have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Caney
    • Caney is located in Matagorda County

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

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

The official website for Brazoria County: www.brazoria-county.com/

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 things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Velasco) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Velasco. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 28.9628, Longitude: -95.3595       In this case, the coordinates for Velasco 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 Velasco, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024