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Our Genealogy Helper

Introduction ...

So far, we found very little information about Balfour. The little that we've found leads us believe that the community is historic.<1>

We've added Balfour to our Gazetteer with the hope that we can develop more information. If you can help us with Balfour, please Contact Us.

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 Balfour (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 Balfour. 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.

Although our information shows that the community of Balfour is historic, it would have been located within present day Park 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 Park County: Chaffee, Clear Creek, Douglas, Fremont, Jefferson, Lake, Summit & Teller.

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

  • Park County     (The home county of Balfour)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Balfour, with the one closest to Balfour listed first.
    • Hartsel
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Pike - San Isabel Village
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
    • Guffey
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Lake George
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
    • Fairplay
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Horseshoe ‑ Historic
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
      • Horseshoe is located in Park County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Horseshoe
    • Como
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
    • Alma Junction
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Alma Junction is located in Park County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Alma Junction
  • Chaffee County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Balfour, with the one closest to Balfour listed first.
    • Nathrop
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Johnson Village
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
    • Buena Vista
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
    • Turret ‑ Historic
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
      • Turret is located in Chaffee County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Turret
    • Americus
      (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
      • Americus is located in Chaffee County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Americus
    • Pine Creek
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
      • Pine Creek is located in Chaffee County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pine Creek
    • Browns Canon
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
      • Browns Canon is located in Chaffee County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Browns Canon
    • Belleview
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Belleview is located in Chaffee County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Belleview
    • Salida
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Cleora
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Cleora is located in Chaffee County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cleora
    • Granite
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
    • Hawkinsville ‑ Historic
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
      • Hawkinsville is located in Chaffee County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hawkinsville
  • Fremont County
    • Wellsville
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
      • Wellsville is located in Fremont County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wellsville
  • Lake County
    • Low Pass ‑ Historic
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
      • Low Pass is located in Lake County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Low Pass
  • Teller County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Balfour, with the one closest to Balfour listed first.
    • Florissant
      (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
    • Divide
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)

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

Cemeteries Near Balfour ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Balfour.

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

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

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

  • Hartsel Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
  • Buffalo Springs Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Rocky Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
  • Lake George Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
  • Farnum Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
  • Mt. Olivet Cemetery
    (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
  • Fourmile Cemetery
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
  • Florissant Cemetery
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
  • Centerville Cemetery
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Fairplay Cemetery
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
  • Old Fairplay Cemetery
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
  • Bordenville Cemetery
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
  • Continue List   (8 more) ...
    • Wildhorn Ranch Cemetery
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)

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.

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

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

  • Hartsel
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
  • Haver ‑ Historic
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
    • Haver is located in Park County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Haver
  • Garo ‑ Historic
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Garo is located in Park County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Garo
  • Lake George
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
  • Nathrop
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Buena Vista
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
  • Americus
    (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
    • Americus is located in Chaffee County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Americus
  • Riverside
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
    • Riverside is located in Chaffee County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Riverside
  • Fairplay
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Pine Creek
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
    • Pine Creek is located in Chaffee County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pine Creek
  • Browns Canon
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Browns Canon is located in Chaffee County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Browns Canon
  • Belleview
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Belleview is located in Chaffee County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Belleview
  • Salida
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Como
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Balfour ...

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 54 newspapers that have been published in the area around Balfour.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Balfour. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Balfour and those printed in the larger area surrounding Balfour.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<4> of Balfour.

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 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 Balfour:

Footnotes ...

<1>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 Balfour, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<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 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.
<4>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- Balfour) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.