My question involves defamation in the state of: TX
Nothing fancy- I recently moved into a new house in a nice neighborhood. Well the neighbors are real close/tight-knit, which is great, however, when I moved in they opted to run a "background" check on me based off my license plate.
The plate information, as they claim, gave them my name. They then took my name and compared it to a sex offender registry (No lie), but they are, at this time, unable to tell me which one.
So last night I had a group of neighbors on the edge of my lawn shouting my name (mind you neighbors I had never met), then after I open the door yelling, "Are you __________ the registered sex offender?"
Of course the conversation ensued, and I had to deny my guilt- I'm not a sex offender. They confused me with a person of the same name in WV (I would find out later that night). I was forced to prove my innocence to end the conversation by providing my DL# and my SS# for them to further research.
It was admitted by the small group that the "fact" that I was a registered sex offender (they thought they had a case on me as I had not notified the people on the street to my presence...sigh) was disseminated to everyone on the street for 2 blocks. Everyone.
Options, if any? I don't want to sue my neighbors- they're just confused/excitable. I want to find out their source of information, and if possible, force my neighbors to stop spreading such harmful lies about me.
Thank you for any advice.

