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 Gila Bend (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 Gila Bend. 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 Gila Bend ...

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.

A past name for Gila Bend: Gila.

For example, a typical abbreviation for Gila Bend: Gila Bnd.

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 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.

Gila Bend is located in Maricopa County.

To see how the shape of Arizona's counties have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Maricopa County: Gila, La Paz, Pima, Pinal, Yavapai & Yuma.

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

• Maricopa County     (The home county of Gila Bend)
  • The following are listed by their distance from Gila Bend, with the one closest to Gila Bend listed first.
  • San Lucy Village
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for San Lucy Village have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for San Lucy Village
    • San Lucy Village is located in Maricopa County
  • Theba
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Theba
    • Theba is located in Maricopa County
  • Arlington
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Arlington
    • Arlington is located in Maricopa County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Arlington <2>
  • Harqua ‑ Historic
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Harqua have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harqua
    • Harqua is located in Maricopa County
  • Mobile
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mobile
    • Mobile is located in Maricopa County
  • Palo Verde
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Palo Verde
    • Palo Verde is located in Maricopa County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Palo Verde <2>
  • Buckeye
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Buckeye
    • Buckeye is located in Maricopa County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 85,224 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Buckeye <2>

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Gila Bend ...

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 Gila Bend.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

• A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Gila Bend. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Gila Bend and those printed in the larger area surrounding Gila Bend.
• An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<3> of Gila Bend.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we like to start 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 Gila Bend:

• Websites specific to Arizona
  • Jump to Cyndi's List
  • Jump to Family Search
  • Jump to Genealogy Trails
  • Website for the //www.azlibrary.gov/arm

• Pages specific to Maricopa County
  • Jump to Cyndi's List
  • Jump to Family Search
  • Jump to Genealogy Trails

• Cemetery Information and Directories for Arizona
  • Cemetery Junction: Cemeteries of Arizona
  • Cyndi's List
  • Cemeteries of Arizona
  • Cemeteries of Maricopa County
  • FamilySearch.org: Cemeteries of Arizona
  • Find-A-Grave: Home Page
  • Interment.net
  • Cemeteries of Arizona
  • Cemeteries of Maricopa County

Cemeteries Near Gila Bend ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Gila Bend.

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

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

• Hee - A - Hand Park
  (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Hee - A - Hand Park have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Hee - A - Hand Park
• Pioneer Cemetery
  (Less than 2 miles to the south)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Pioneer Cemetery
  • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2163437 <4>
• Stout Cemetery
  (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Stout Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Stout Cemetery
• Bosque Cemetery
  (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Bosque Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Bosque Cemetery
• Fourr Cemetery
  (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
  • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for the Fourr Cemetery. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<5>
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Fourr Cemetery
  • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #57013 <4>
• Oatman Farmily Graves
  (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
  • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for the Oatman Farmily Graves. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<5>
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Oatman Farmily Graves

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 Gila Bend had a population of 135 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Gila Bend had a population of 2,118 people.

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

• Bosque
  (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Bosque have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bosque
  • Bosque is located in Maricopa County
• Estrella
  (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Estrella have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Estrella
  • Estrella is located in Maricopa County
• Papago
  (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Papago have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Papago
  • Papago is located in Maricopa County
• Sentinel
  (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Sentinel have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sentinel
  • Sentinel is located in Maricopa County
• Buckeye
  (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Buckeye
  • Buckeye is located in Maricopa County
  • Population from the 2020 Census: 85,224 people
  • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Buckeye <2>

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

Off-the-Road Links ...

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

The official website for Maricopa County: www.maricopa.gov/

The official website for State of Arizona: https://az.gov/