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 Paradise Valley (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 Paradise Valley. 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 Paradise Valley ...

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 Paradise Valley: Paradise Vly. (or less commonly used: Paradise Vally. or Paradise Vlly.)

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 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.

Paradise Valley is located in Maricopa 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 Maricopa County: Gila, La Paz, Pima, Pinal, Yavapai & Yuma.

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

• Maricopa County     (The home county of Paradise Valley)
  • The following are listed by their distance from Paradise Valley, with the one closest to Paradise Valley listed first.
  • Scottsdale
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Scottsdale
    • Scottsdale is located in Maricopa County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 262,647 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Scottsdale <1>
  • Clearwater Hills
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clearwater Hills
    • Clearwater Hills is located in Maricopa County
  • Paradise Village North II
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Paradise Village North II have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Paradise Village North II
    • Paradise Village North II is located in Maricopa County
  • Continental Village
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Continental Village have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Continental Village
    • Continental Village is located in Maricopa County
  • Papago Peaks Village
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Papago Peaks Village have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Papago Peaks Village
    • Papago Peaks Village is located in Maricopa County
  • Shadow Mountain Village Scottsdale
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Shadow Mountain Village Scottsdale have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shadow Mountain Village Scottsdale
    • Shadow Mountain Village Scottsdale is located in Maricopa County
  • Oakhurst
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oakhurst
    • Oakhurst is located in Maricopa County
  • Sandalwood
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Sandalwood have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sandalwood
    • Sandalwood is located in Maricopa County
  • Tempe
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tempe
    • Tempe is located in Maricopa County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 200,402 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Tempe <1>
  • Palm Lakes Village
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Palm Lakes Village have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Palm Lakes Village
    • Palm Lakes Village is located in Maricopa County
  • Paradise City
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Paradise City have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Paradise City
    • Paradise City is located in Maricopa County
  • Hohokam Village
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Hohokam Village have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hohokam Village
    • Hohokam Village is located in Maricopa County
• Pinal County
  • The following are listed by their distance from Paradise Valley, with the one closest to Paradise Valley listed first.
  • Santa Cruz
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Santa Cruz have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Santa Cruz
    • Santa Cruz is located in Pinal County
  • Santan
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Santan have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Santan
    • Santan is located in Pinal County
  • Goldfield ‑ Historic
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Goldfield
    • Goldfield is located in Pinal County
  • Youngberg
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Youngberg
    • Youngberg is located in Pinal County
  • Maricopa Wells ‑ Historic
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Maricopa Wells have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Maricopa Wells
    • Maricopa Wells is located in Pinal County
  • Stotonic
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stotonic
    • Stotonic is located in Pinal County
    • Stotonic has also been known as:
    • Stetonic
    • Stotonik
  • Bapchule
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bapchule
    • Bapchule is located in Pinal County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Bapchule <1>
  • Casa Blanca
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Casa Blanca
    • Casa Blanca is located in Pinal County
  • Sweetwater
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sweetwater
    • Sweetwater is located in Pinal County
  • Gold Canyon
    (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gold Canyon
    • Gold Canyon is located in Pinal County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Gold Canyon <1>

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Paradise Valley ...

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 45 newspapers that have been published in the area around Paradise Valley.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

• A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Paradise Valley. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Paradise Valley and those printed in the larger area surrounding Paradise Valley.
• An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 11 miles [17.7 km]<3> of Paradise Valley.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first turn to 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 Paradise Valley:

• Websites specific to Arizona
  • Jump to Cyndi's List
  • Jump to Family Search
  • Jump to Genealogy Trails
  • Website for the //www.azlibrary.gov/arm

• Pages specific to Maricopa County
  • Jump to Cyndi's List
  • Jump to Family Search
  • Jump to Genealogy Trails

• Genealogy information for nearby counties
  • Pinal County
    • Jump to Cyndi's List
    • Jump to Family Search
    • Jump to Genealogy Trails

• Cemetery Information and Directories for Arizona
  • Cemetery Junction: Cemeteries of Arizona
  • Cyndi's List
  • Cemeteries of Arizona
  • Cemeteries of Maricopa County
  • FamilySearch.org: Cemeteries of Arizona
  • Find-A-Grave: Home Page
  • Interment.net
  • Cemeteries of Arizona
  • Cemeteries of Maricopa County

Cemeteries Near Paradise Valley ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Paradise Valley.

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 Paradise Valley covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

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

• Camelback Cemetery
  (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Camelback Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Camelback Cemetery
• St. Francis Cemetery
  (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Francis Cemetery
  • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #57111 <4>
• Cross Cut Cemetery
  (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
  • The Cross Cut Cemetery has also been known as:
  • Cactus Mound Cemetery
  • Williams Cemetery
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Cross Cut Cemetery
  • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2167539 <4>
• Governor Hunt Tomb
  (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Governor Hunt Tomb have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Governor Hunt Tomb
• Green Acres Memorial Park
  (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Green Acres Memorial Park
  • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #57025 <4>
• Paradise Memorial Gardens
  (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Paradise Memorial Gardens
  • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #57085 <4>
• Valley of the Sun Memorial Park
  (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Valley of the Sun Memorial Park have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Valley of the Sun Memorial Park
• Hansen Desert Hills Memorial Park
  (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
  • The Hansen Desert Hills Memorial Park has also been known as:
  • Desert Hills Memorial Park
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Hansen Desert Hills Memorial Park
  • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #1065625 <4>
• Tempe Double Butte Cemetery
  (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Tempe Double Butte Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Tempe Double Butte Cemetery
• Twin Buttes Cemetery
  (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
  • The Twin Buttes Cemetery has also been known as:
  • Maricopa County Cemetery
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Twin Buttes Cemetery
  • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #57058 <4>
• City of Mesa Cemetery
  (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the City of Mesa Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the City of Mesa Cemetery
• Mesa City Cemetery
  (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Mesa City Cemetery
• Continue List   (35 more) ...
  • Resthaven Park East Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
    • The Resthaven Park East Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Resthaven Cemetery
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Resthaven Park East Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #57097 <4>
  • Beth El Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Beth El Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Beth El Cemetery
  • Pioneer & Memorial Park Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Pioneer & Memorial Park Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2617627 <4>

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.<5>

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

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

• Tempe
  (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tempe
  • Tempe is located in Maricopa County
  • Population from the 2020 Census: 200,402 people
  • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Tempe <1>
• Lehi
  (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Lehi have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lehi
  • Lehi is located in Maricopa County
• Phoenix
  (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Phoenix
  • Phoenix is located in Maricopa County
  • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,708,127 people
  • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Phoenix <1>
• Mesa
  (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mesa
  • Mesa is located in Maricopa County
  • Population from the 2020 Census: 528,159 people
  • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Mesa <1>
• Kyrene
  (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kyrene
  • Kyrene is located in Maricopa County
• Peoria
  (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Peoria
  • Peoria is located in Maricopa County
  • Population from the 2020 Census: 179,872 people
  • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Peoria <1>
• Cave Creek
  (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cave Creek
  • Cave Creek is located in Maricopa County
  • Population from the 2020 Census: 5,986 people
  • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Cave Creek <1>
• Sweetwater
  (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sweetwater
  • Sweetwater 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 Paradise Valley. See our List of 1890's Communities around Paradise Valley.

Off-the-Road Links ...

The official website for Paradise Valley: www.ci.paradise-valley.az.us/

The official website for Maricopa County: www.maricopa.gov/

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