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The Commemorative Quarter for New Mexico





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 Alamogordo (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 Alamogordo. 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 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 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.

Alamogordo is located in Otero County and is the County Seat.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Otero County: Chaves, Dona Ana, Eddy, Lincoln, Sierra, Culberson (TX) & Hudspeth (TX).

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

  • Otero County     (The home county of Alamogordo)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Alamogordo, with the one closest to Alamogordo listed first.
    • Boles Acres
      (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Boles Acres
      • Boles Acres is located in Otero County
    • La Luz
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • High Rolls
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for High Rolls
      • High Rolls is located in Otero County
    • Mountain Park
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mountain Park
      • Mountain Park is located in Otero County
    • Sunspot
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sunspot
      • Sunspot is located in Otero County
    • Cloudcroft
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
    • Tularosa
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
    • Bent
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
    • Mescalero
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Timberon
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Timberon have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Timberon
      • Timberon is located in Otero County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Timberon <1>
    • Hortonville
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hortonville
      • Hortonville is located in Otero County
    • Sacramento
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
    • Weed
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Alamogordo ...

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 41 newspapers that have been published in the area around Alamogordo.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Alamogordo. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Alamogordo and those printed in the larger area surrounding Alamogordo.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 13 miles [20.9 km]<3> of Alamogordo.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first turn to 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 Alamogordo:

Cemeteries Near Alamogordo ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Alamogordo.

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

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

  • Monte Vista Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
  • Immaculate Conception Catholic Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
  • White Dove of the Desert Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
  • Our Lady of the Light Catholic Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
  • La Luz Community Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
  • Marcia Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Marcia Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Marcia Cemetery
  • Fairview Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
  • Sacred Heart Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
    • The Sacred Heart Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Tularosa Catholic Cemetery
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Sacred Heart Cemetery
  • Bass Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Bass Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Bass Cemetery
  • Walters Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Walters Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Walters Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #38504 <4>
  • James Canyon Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
  • Carner Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
  • Continue List   (13 more) ...
    • Mescalero Indian Cemetery
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Blazer Cemetery
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Blazers Cemetery
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Blazers Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Blazers Cemetery

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

The official website for Alamogordo: www.ci.alamogordo.nm.us/

The official website for Otero County: www.co.otero.nm.us/

The official website for State of New Mexico: www.newmexico.gov/

Footnotes ...

<1>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<2>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.
<3>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- Alamogordo) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Alamogordo. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 32.8834, Longitude: -105.9628       In this case, the coordinates for Alamogordo have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<4>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.




 

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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: 07 Apr 2024