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 Cactus (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 Cactus. 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 northwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals were in the next county to the west. Almost all of the nearby churches and cemeteries were in the county to the north.
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 north 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.
Cactus is located in Maricopa County.
To see how the shape of Arizona's counties may 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 Cactus. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Cactus:
- Maricopa County (The home county of Cactus)
- The following are listed by their distance from Cactus, with the one closest to Cactus listed first.
- Paradise City
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
- Paradise City is located in Maricopa County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Paradise City
- Palm Lakes Village
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
- Palm Lakes Village is located in Maricopa County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Palm Lakes Village
- Sandalwood
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
- Sandalwood is located in Maricopa County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sandalwood
- Paradise Village North II
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
- Central Park Village
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
- Central Park Village is located in Maricopa County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Central Park Village
- The Town Square
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
- The Town Square is located in Maricopa County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for The Town Square
- Clearwater Hills
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
- Clearwater Hills is located in Maricopa County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clearwater Hills
- Canyon Village
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
- Canyon Village is located in Maricopa County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Canyon Village
- Oakhurst
(5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
- Oakhurst is located in Maricopa County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oakhurst
- Paradise Valley
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
- Cheyenne Village
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
- Cheyenne Village is located in Maricopa County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cheyenne Village
- Scottsdale
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
- Pinal County
- The following are listed by their distance from Cactus, with the one closest to Cactus listed first.
- Santa Cruz
(26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
- Santa Cruz is located in Pinal County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Santa Cruz
- Maricopa Wells ‑ Historic
(30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
- Maricopa Wells is located in Pinal County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Maricopa Wells
- Yavapai County
- Gillett ‑ Historic
(29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
- Gillett is located in Yavapai County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gillett
For an expanded list of the communities that are closest to Cactus, see our County-by-County Page for Cactus.
Cemeteries Near Cactus ...
Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Cactus.
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.
Although we don't have the information ourselves, if you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our list of websites on our Genealogy Helper Page for Cactus - one of the links might be able to help.
If not found below, our Cemetery List for Cactus covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.
The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Cactus, with the one closest to Cactus listed first.
- Phoenix Memorial Park
(5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
- Hansen Desert Hills Memorial Park
(5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
- National Memorial Cemetery of Arizona
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
- Valley of the Sun Memorial Park
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
- Camelback Cemetery
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
- Paradise Memorial Gardens
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
- West Resthaven Park Cemetery
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West Resthaven Park Cemetery
- To give a relative sense of its location, the West Resthaven Park Cemetery is a very large cemetery that is located in Glendale.
- The West Resthaven Park Cemetery has also been known as:
- Resthaven Cemetery
- Resthaven Park West Cemetery
- Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #57098 <2>
- Glendale Memorial Park
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
- St. Francis Cemetery
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
- Mt. Sinai Cemetery
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mt. Sinai Cemetery
- To give a relative sense of its location, the Mt. Sinai Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located outside and to the northeast of Phoenix.
- Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2233155 <2>
- Beth El Cemetery
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
- Greenwood Memory Lawn Cemetery
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Greenwood Memory Lawn Cemetery
- To give a relative sense of its location, the Greenwood Memory Lawn Cemetery is a very large cemetery that is located in Phoenix.
- The Greenwood Memory Lawn Cemetery has also been known as:
- Forest Lawn Cemetery
- Greenwood Memorial Cemetery
- Memory Lawn Cemetery
- Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #57026 <2>
- Continue List (34 more) ...
- Cross Cut Cemetery
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cross Cut Cemetery
- The Cross Cut Cemetery has also been known as:
- Cactus Mound Cemetery
- Williams Cemetery
- Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2167539 <2>
- Russian Molokan Cemetery
(11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
- City Loosley Cemetery
(11 miles [17.7 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.<3>
While we didn't find Cactus in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Cactus.
These communities are listed based on their distance from Cactus, with the one closest to Cactus listed first.
- Phoenix
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
- Peoria
(11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
- Tempe
(13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
- Lehi
(15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
- Lehi is located in Maricopa County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lehi
- Cave Creek
(16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
- Mesa
(17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
- Mesa is located in Maricopa County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mesa
- Population from the 2020 Census: 528,159 people
- Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Mesa <1>
- Kyrene
(18 miles [29 km] to the south)
- Kyrene is located in Maricopa County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kyrene
We've also created an expanded list of communities that existed in the 1890's and were located in the area around Cactus. See our List of 1890's Communities around Cactus.
Newspapers Published in Cactus ...
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 32 newspapers that have been published in the area around Cactus.
Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Cactus, there are papers which were published within 9 miles [14.5 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Cactus.
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 Cactus:
- Websites specific to Arizona
- Pages specific to Maricopa County
- Genealogy information for nearby counties
- Pinal County
- Yavapai County
- Cemetery Information and Directories for Arizona
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 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. |
| <3> | 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 Cactus, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy. |
| <4> | Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Cactus) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'. |