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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 Oak Springs (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 Oak Springs. 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 Oak Springs ...

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 Oak Springs: Oak Spgs. (or less commonly used: Oak Spngs. or Oak Sprngs.)

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 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.

Oak Springs is located in Apache 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 Apache County: Graham, Greenlee, Navajo, Montezuma (CO), Catron (NM), Cibola (NM), McKinley (NM), San Juan (NM) & San Juan (UT).

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

  • Apache County     (The home county of Oak Springs)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Oak Springs, with the one closest to Oak Springs listed first.
    • Hunters Point
      (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hunters Point
      • Hunters Point is located in Apache County
    • Lupton
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Pine Springs
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Saint Michaels
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
    • Allentown
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Allentown
      • Allentown is located in Apache County
    • Window Rock
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
    • Houck
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
    • Fort Defiance
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
    • Wide Ruins
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wide Ruins
      • Wide Ruins is located in Apache County
    • Sanders
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Klagetoh
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Klagetoh
      • Klagetoh is located in Apache County
    • Kinlichee
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kinlichee
      • Kinlichee is located in Apache County
    • Chambers
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
  • McKinley County (NM)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Oak Springs, with the one closest to Oak Springs listed first.
    • Defiance
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Defiance
      • Defiance is located in McKinley County (NM)
    • Tse Bonito
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Tse Bonito have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tse Bonito
      • Tse Bonito is located in McKinley County (NM)
    • Rock Springs
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rock Springs
      • Rock Springs is located in McKinley County (NM)
    • Red Rock
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Red Rock
      • Red Rock is located in McKinley County (NM)
    • Gallup
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gallup
      • Gallup is located in McKinley County (NM)
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 21,253 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Gallup <1>
    • Yah-ta-hey
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Yah-ta-hey have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Yah-ta-hey
      • Yah-ta-hey is located in McKinley County (NM)
    • Twin Lakes
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Twin Lakes have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Twin Lakes
      • Twin Lakes is located in McKinley County (NM)
    • Vanderwagen
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Bread Springs
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bread Springs
      • Bread Springs is located in McKinley County (NM)
    • Rehoboth
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
    • Mexican Springs
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mexican Springs
      • Mexican Springs is located in McKinley County (NM)
      • Mexican Springs has also been known as:
      • Nakai Beto
      • Nakai Bito
      • Nakaibeto
      • Nakaibito
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Mexican Springs <1>
    • Navajo
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Navajo have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Navajo
      • Navajo is located in McKinley County (NM)
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Navajo <1>
    • Church Rock
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)

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

Newspapers Published in Oak Springs ...

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 36 newspapers that have been published in the area around Oak Springs.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Oak Springs, there are papers which were published within 28 miles [45.1 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Oak Springs.

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 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 Oak Springs:

Cemeteries Near Oak Springs ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Oak Springs.

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 Oak Springs covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Oak Springs, with the one closest to Oak Springs 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 Oak Springs in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Oak Springs.

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

  • Allentown
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Allentown
    • Allentown is located in Apache County
  • Fort Defiance
    (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
  • Sanders
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Ganado
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)

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

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

The official website for Apache County: www.co.apache.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>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Oak Springs) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Oak Springs. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 35.4755, Longitude: -109.1323    
<4>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.
<5>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.
<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 Oak Springs, 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.

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This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024