RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Arizona >> Cochise County >> Luzena >> Genealogy HelperIndex...

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 Luzena (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 Luzena. 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 hospitals 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.

Luzena is located in Cochise 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 Cochise County: Graham, Greenlee, Pima, Santa Cruz & Hidalgo (NM).

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

  • Cochise County     (The home county of Luzena)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Luzena, with the one closest to Luzena listed first.
    • Bowie
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
    • Dos Cabezas
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
      • Dos Cabezas is located in Cochise County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dos Cabezas
    • Willcox
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Camp Bowie ‑ Historic
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
      • Camp Bowie is located in Cochise County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Camp Bowie
    • Fort Bowie ‑ Historic
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
      • Fort Bowie is located in Cochise County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fort Bowie
    • Cochise
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
    • San Simon
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
    • Light ‑ Historic
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
      • Light is located in Cochise County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Light
  • Graham County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Luzena, with the one closest to Luzena listed first.
    • Whitlock Cienega ‑ Historic
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
      • Whitlock Cienega is located in Graham County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Whitlock Cienega
    • Artesia
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
      • Artesia is located in Graham County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Artesia
    • Swift Trail Junction
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
      • Swift Trail Junction is located in Graham County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Swift Trail Junction
    • Fort Grant
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Fort Grant is located in Graham County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fort Grant
    • Lebanon
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
      • Lebanon is located in Graham County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lebanon
    • Cactus Flat
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
      • Cactus Flat is located in Graham County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cactus Flat

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

Cemeteries Near Luzena ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Luzena.

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 Luzena - one of the links might be able to help.

If not found below, our Cemetery List for Luzena covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

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

  • Bowie Desert Rest Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
  • Ft. Bowie Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
  • Sulphur Springs Cemetery
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Artesia Cemetery
    (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
  • Cochise Cemetery
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
  • Riggs Cemetery
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
  • Bonita Cemetery
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Neighborhood Cemetery
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Erickson Cemetery
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Lebanon Cemetery
    (28 miles [45.1 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.<4>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that in 1895, Luzena had railroad service and no post office.

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

  • Bowie
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
  • Dos Cabezas
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
    • Dos Cabezas is located in Cochise County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dos Cabezas
  • Willcox
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Olga
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
    • Olga is located in Cochise County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Olga
  • Fort Bowie ‑ Historic
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
    • Fort Bowie is located in Cochise County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fort Bowie
  • San Simon
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
  • Bonita ‑ Historic
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Bonita is located in Graham County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bonita
  • Fort Grant
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Fort Grant is located in Graham County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fort Grant

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

Newspapers Published in Luzena ...

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 9 newspapers that have been published in the area around Luzena.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Luzena, there are papers which were published within 24 miles [38.6 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Luzena.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we 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 Luzena:

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>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Luzena) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<4>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 Luzena, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.