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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 Madera Canyon (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 Madera Canyon. 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 Madera Canyon ...

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.

For example, a typical abbreviation for Madera Canyon: Madera Cyn. (or less commonly used: Madera Canyn. or Madera Cnyn.)

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 southwest 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 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.

Madera Canyon is located in Santa Cruz 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 Santa Cruz County: Cochise & Pima.

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

  • Santa Cruz County     (The home county of Madera Canyon)
  • Pima County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Madera Canyon, with the one closest to Madera Canyon listed first.
    • Greaterville ‑ Historic
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
    • Helvetia ‑ Historic
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Helvetia. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<1>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Helvetia
      • Helvetia is located in Pima County
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Helvetia
      • From Madera Canyon to Helvetia
    • Arivaca Junction
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
    • Green Valley
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Sahuarita
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
    • East Sahuarita
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for East Sahuarita have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for East Sahuarita
      • East Sahuarita is located in Pima County
    • Corona de Tucson
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Corona de Tucson have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Corona de Tucson
      • Corona de Tucson is located in Pima County
    • Vail
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Summit
      (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Summit have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Summit
      • Summit is located in Pima County
    • Esmond
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Esmond. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<1>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Esmond
      • Esmond is located in Pima County
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Esmond
      • From Madera Canyon to Esmond
    • Littletown
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Littletown have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Littletown
      • Littletown is located in Pima County
    • Wilmot
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Wilmot. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<1>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wilmot
      • Wilmot is located in Pima County
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Wilmot
      • From Madera Canyon to Wilmot
    • Arivaca
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)

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

Cemeteries Near Madera Canyon ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Madera Canyon.

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

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

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>

While we didn't find Madera Canyon in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Madera Canyon.

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

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Madera Canyon ...

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 46 newspapers that have been published in the area around Madera Canyon.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Madera Canyon. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Madera Canyon and those printed in the larger area surrounding Madera Canyon.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 28 miles [45.1 km]<5> of Madera Canyon.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we begin 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 Madera Canyon:

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

The official website for Santa Cruz County: www.co.santa-cruz.az.us/

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

Footnotes ...

<1>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.
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<3>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.
<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.
<5>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 drawn from Point A (ie- Madera Canyon) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Madera Canyon. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 31.7250, Longitude: -110.8800    
<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 Madera Canyon, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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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: 28 Apr 2025