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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 Browns Canon (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 Browns Canon. 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 Browns Canon ...

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.

While the name of this community is Browns Canon, be aware that it's the common practice of mapmakers to remove the apostrophe from possessive names<1>. So Browns Canon may originally have been Brown's Canon.

Sometimes the trailing 's' might be dropped altogether, in which case Browns Canon might be written as Brown Canon.

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.

Browns Canon is located in Chaffee County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Chaffee County: Fremont, Gunnison, Lake, Park, Pitkin & Saguache.

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

  • Chaffee County     (The home county of Browns Canon)
  • Fremont County
  • Gunnison County
  • Park County
    • Guffey
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Guffey have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Guffey
      • Guffey is located in Park County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Guffey <3>
  • Saguache County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Browns Canon, with the one closest to Browns Canon listed first.
    • Bonanza
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
    • Kerper City
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Kerper City have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kerper City
      • Kerper City is located in Saguache County
    • Sargents
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Sargents have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sargents
      • Sargents is located in Saguache County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Sargents <3>
    • Villa Grove
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Villa Grove have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Villa Grove
      • Villa Grove is located in Saguache County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Villa Grove <3>
    • Spook City
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Spook City have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spook City
      • Spook City is located in Saguache County

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

Cemeteries Near Browns Canon ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Browns Canon.

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 Browns Canon covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Browns Canon, with the one closest to Browns Canon 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>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that in 1895, Browns Canon had railroad service and no post office.

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

  • Belleview
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Belleview. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Belleview
    • Belleview is located in Chaffee County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Belleview
    • From Browns Canon to Belleview
  • Poncha Springs
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
  • Salida
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Maysville ‑ Historic
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Cleora
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Cleora. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cleora
    • Cleora is located in Chaffee County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Cleora
    • From Browns Canon to Cleora
  • Nathrop
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Nathrop have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nathrop
    • Nathrop is located in Chaffee County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Nathrop <3>
  • Mears Junction
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
  • Wellsville
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Garfield ‑ Historic
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Garfield have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Garfield
    • Garfield is located in Chaffee County
  • Alpine ‑ Historic
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Alpine have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Alpine
    • Alpine is located in Chaffee County
  • Monarch
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
  • Buena Vista
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Buena Vista have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Buena Vista
    • Buena Vista is located in Chaffee County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 3,116 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Buena Vista <3>
  • Continue List   (14 more) ...

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

Newspapers Published in Browns Canon ...

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 53 newspapers that have been published in the area around Browns Canon.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Browns Canon, there are papers which were published within 27 miles [43.5 km]<7>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Browns Canon.

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 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 Browns Canon:

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

The official website for Chaffee County: www.chaffeecounty.org/

The official website for State of Colorado: https://www.colorado.gov/

Footnotes ...

<1>It's generally believed that possessive apostrophes are removed to prevent confusion on maps where the apostrophe may be confused with a cartographic symbol. While this is generally true, it's not uncommon to find possessive apostrophes in administrative names (such as towns or counties).
<2>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.
<3>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<4>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.
<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 Browns Canon, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<7>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 drawn from Point A (ie- Browns Canon) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Browns Canon. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 38.6082, Longitude: -106.0647       In this case, the coordinates for Browns Canon have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 28 Apr 2025