RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Colorado >> Rio Grande County >> Ansel >> 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 Ansel (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 Ansel. 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 southeast 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 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 east 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.

Ansel is located in Rio Grande County.

To see how the shape of Colorado's counties may have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Rio Grande County: Alamosa, Archuleta, Conejos, Mineral & Saguache.

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

  • Rio Grande County     (The home county of Ansel)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Ansel, with the one closest to Ansel listed first.
    • Center
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
      • Center is located in Rio Grande County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Center
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,385 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Center <1>
    • Homelake
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
    • Monte Vista
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
    • Del Norte
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
    • Agua Ramon
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
      • Agua Ramon is located in Rio Grande County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Agua Ramon
    • Gerrard
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
      • Gerrard is located in Rio Grande County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gerrard
    • Jasper ‑ Historic
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
      • Jasper is located in Rio Grande County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jasper
    • South Fork
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
  • Alamosa County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Ansel, with the one closest to Ansel listed first.
    • Hooper
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
    • Parma
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
      • Parma is located in Alamosa County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Parma
    • Mosca
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
    • Waverly
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
      • Waverly is located in Alamosa County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Waverly
    • Alamosa
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Alamosa East
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
      • Alamosa East is located in Alamosa County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Alamosa East
    • Henry
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
      • Henry is located in Alamosa County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Henry
  • Conejos County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Ansel, with the one closest to Ansel listed first.
    • Capulin
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
    • La Jara
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
  • Saguache County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Ansel, with the one closest to Ansel listed first.
    • Moffat
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
    • Saguache
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
    • Liberty ‑ Historic
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
      • Liberty is located in Saguache County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Liberty
    • Crestone
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Duncan ‑ Historic
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Duncan is located in Saguache County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Duncan

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

Cemeteries Near Ansel ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Ansel.

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

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

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

  • Speiser Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
  • Stanley Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
  • Valdeses Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
  • San Luis Valley Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Lariat Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lariat Cemetery
    • The Lariat Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Workers Union Cemetery
  • Monte Vista Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Del Norte Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
  • Rock Creek Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Alamosa Spanish Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
  • Alamosa Municipal Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
  • De la Luz Cemetery
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
  • Hillside Cemetery
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
  • Continue List   (9 more) ...
    • Campo Santo Cemetery
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
    • Capulin Cemetery
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
    • St. Joseph Cemetery
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)

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 Ansel in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Ansel.

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

  • Monte Vista
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
  • Parma
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
    • Parma is located in Alamosa County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Parma
  • Hooper
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
  • La Garita
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
    • La Garita is located in Saguache County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for La Garita
  • Del Norte
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
  • Moffat
    (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
  • Saguache
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
  • Jasper ‑ Historic
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Jasper is located in Rio Grande County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jasper
  • Capulin
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
  • Crestone
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
  • South Fork
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)

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

Newspapers Published in Ansel ...

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 67 newspapers that have been published in the area around Ansel.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Ansel, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Ansel.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first visit 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 Ansel:

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