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A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
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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 Magma (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 Magma. 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.

Magma is located in Pinal 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 Pinal County: Gila, Graham, Maricopa & Pima.

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

  • Pinal County     (The home county of Magma)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Magma, with the one closest to Magma listed first.
    • Adamsville ‑ Historic
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
      • Adamsville is located in Pinal County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Adamsville
    • Blackwater
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
      • Blackwater is located in Pinal County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Blackwater
    • Florence
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Coolidge
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
    • Valley Farms
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
    • Sacaton
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
    • Gold Canyon
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
    • Gold Camp
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Gold Camp is located in Pinal County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gold Camp
    • Randolph
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
      • Randolph is located in Pinal County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Randolph
    • Cactus Forest
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Cactus Forest is located in Pinal County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cactus Forest
    • Queen Valley
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Smelter Town
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Smelter Town is located in Pinal County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Smelter Town
  • Maricopa County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Magma, with the one closest to Magma listed first.
    • Queen Creek
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Chandler Heights
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Sanokai Village
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Sanokai Village is located in Maricopa County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sanokai Village
    • Higley
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Apache Junction
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
    • Silver Spur Village
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
      • Silver Spur Village is located in Maricopa County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Silver Spur Village
    • Sonora
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Buckhorn
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
      • Buckhorn is located in Maricopa County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Buckhorn
    • Gilbert
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Sun Lakes
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
    • Chandler
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
    • Royal Palm Village
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
      • Royal Palm Village is located in Maricopa County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Royal Palm Village

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

Cemeteries Near Magma ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Magma.

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

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Magma, with the one closest to Magma 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.<4>

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

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

  • Florence
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Sacaton
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
  • Reymert ‑ Historic
    (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
    • Reymert is located in Pinal County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Reymert
  • Sweetwater
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
    • Sweetwater is located in Pinal County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sweetwater
  • Casa Grande
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Pinal ‑ Historic
    (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
    • Pinal is located in Pinal County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pinal
  • Toltec
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
    • Toltec is located in Pinal County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Toltec
    • Toltec has also been known as:
    • Toltec City
  • Silver King ‑ Historic
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Silver King is located in Pinal County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Silver King
  • Mesa
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
    • 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>
  • Picacho
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
  • Lehi
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Lehi is located in Maricopa County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lehi
  • Kyrene
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)
    • 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 Magma. See our List of 1890's Communities around Magma.

Newspapers Published in Magma ...

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 Magma.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Magma, there are papers which were published within 27 miles [43.5 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Magma.

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 helpful 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 Magma:

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 '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- Magma) 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 Magma, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.