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 Casa Grande (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 Casa Grande. 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 northeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors were in the next county to the east. 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 east 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.
Casa Grande is located in Pinal 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 Pinal County: Gila, Graham, Maricopa & Pima.
Below are the counties that are near Casa Grande. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Casa Grande:
- Pinal County (The home county of Casa Grande)
- The following are listed by their distance from Casa Grande, with the one closest to Casa Grande listed first.
- Chuichu
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
- Arizona City
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
- Toltec
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
- Eleven Mile Corner
(11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
- Stanfield
(11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
- Sacaton
(13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
- La Palma
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
- Randolph
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
- Blackwater
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Blackwater have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Blackwater
- Blackwater is located in Pinal County
- Eloy
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
- Vaiva Vo
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
- Coolidge
(15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
- Casa Blanca
(18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
- Maricopa County
- The following are listed by their distance from Casa Grande, with the one closest to Casa Grande listed first.
- Chandler Heights
(23 miles [37 km] to the north)
- Sanokai Village
(24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Sanokai Village have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sanokai Village
- Sanokai Village is located in Maricopa County
- Sun Lakes
(24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
- Queen Creek
(26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
- Chandler
(29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
- Higley
(29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
For an expanded list of the communities that are closest to Casa Grande, see our County-by-County Page for Casa Grande.
Cemeteries Near Casa Grande ...
Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Casa Grande.
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 Casa Grande covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.
The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Casa Grande, with the one closest to Casa Grande listed first.
- Mountain View Cemetery
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
- Chuichu North Cemetery
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
- Chuichu South Cemetery
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
- Desert Rose Memorial Cemetery
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
- East Sacaton Cemetery
(13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the East Sacaton Cemetery
- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the East Sacaton Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Sacaton Cemetery
(13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
- C.H. Cook Memorial Church Cemetery
(13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
- Blackwater Cemetery
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
- Cockleburr Cemetery
(15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
- St. Ann Catholic Church Cemetery
(16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
- Eloy Memorial Park
(17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Eloy Memorial Park
- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Eloy Memorial Park have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Valley Memorial Park
(17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Valley Memorial Park
- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Valley Memorial Park have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Continue List (12 more) ...
- Sweetwater Cemetery
(18 miles [29 km] to the north)
- West Casa Blanca Cemetery
(18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
- Bapchule Cemetery
(19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
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 Casa Grande had a population of 328 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Casa Grande had a population of 61,183 people.
These communities are listed based on their distance from Casa Grande, with the one closest to Casa Grande listed first.
- Toltec
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
- Sacaton
(13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
- Sweetwater
(18 miles [29 km] to the north)
- Picacho
(18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
- Maricopa
(20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
- Florence
(23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
- Heaton
(25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
- Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Heaton have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Heaton
- Heaton is located in Pinal County
We've also created an expanded list of communities that existed in the 1890's and were located in the area around Casa Grande. See our List of 1890's Communities around Casa Grande.
Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Casa Grande ...
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 69 newspapers that have been published in the area around Casa Grande.
We have organized these newspapers into two lists:
- A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Casa Grande. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Casa Grande and those printed in the larger area surrounding Casa Grande.
- An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<4> of Casa Grande.
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 websites either 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 Casa Grande:
- Websites specific to Arizona
- Pages specific to Pinal County
- Genealogy information for nearby counties
- Cemetery Information and Directories for Arizona
Off-the-Road Links ...
The official website for Casa Grande: www.ci.casa-grande.az.us/
The official website for Pinal County: www.co.pinal.az.us/
The official website for State of Arizona: https://az.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> | 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. |
<4> | Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Casa Grande) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Casa Grande. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 32.8797, Longitude: -111.7575 |
<5> | 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. |
<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 Casa Grande, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy. |