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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 Fir (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 Fir. 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 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.

Fir is located in Costilla 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 Costilla County: Alamosa, Conejos, Huerfano, Las Animas, Colfax (NM) & Taos (NM).

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

  • Costilla County     (The home county of Fir)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Fir, with the one closest to Fir listed first.
    • Russell ‑ Historic
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Russell is located in Costilla County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Russell
    • Garland City ‑ Historic
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
      • Garland City is located in Costilla County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Garland City
    • Fort Garland
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
    • Blanca
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
    • San Luis
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
    • Chama
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
    • San Pablo
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
    • San Acacio
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
  • Huerfano County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Fir, with the one closest to Fir listed first.
    • Muleshoe
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
      • Muleshoe is located in Huerfano County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Muleshoe
    • Uptop ‑ Historic
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
      • Uptop is located in Huerfano County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Uptop
    • La Veta Pass
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
      • La Veta Pass is located in Huerfano County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for La Veta Pass
    • Cuchara
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
    • La Veta
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
    • Alamo
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Alamo is located in Huerfano County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Alamo
    • Red Wing
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
    • Gardner
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
    • Tioga
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Tioga is located in Huerfano County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tioga
    • Calumet
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
      • Calumet is located in Huerfano County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Calumet
    • Walsenburg
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Bradford
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
      • Bradford is located in Huerfano County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bradford
    • Cuchara Junction
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Cuchara Junction is located in Huerfano County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cuchara Junction
  • Las Animas County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Fir, with the one closest to Fir listed first.
    • Monument Park
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
      • Monument Park is located in Las Animas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Monument Park
    • Gulnare
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Aguilar
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
    • Weston
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)

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

Cemeteries Near Fir ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Fir.

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

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

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

  • Oak View Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
  • La Veta Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for La Veta Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the La Veta Cemetery is located less than 2 miles<2> to the east of La Veta.
    • The La Veta Cemetery has also been known as:
    • La Veta Spanish Cemetery
    • La Wahatoya Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2256280 <3>
  • Old La Veta Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
  • Chavez Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Sanches Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
  • Yellowstone Creek Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
  • Brennaman Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
  • Ft. Garland Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
  • Myer Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
  • Mac Mullan Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
  • Blanca Trinchera Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Blanca Trinchera Cemetery
    • The Blanca Trinchera Cemetery has also been known as:
    • New Ft. Garland Cemetery
  • Chama Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
  • Continue List   (29 more) ...
    • Gonzales Cemetery
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
    • Farisita Cemetery
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
    • Hicks Cemetery
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)

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

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

  • Muleshoe
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • Muleshoe is located in Huerfano County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Muleshoe
  • Russell ‑ Historic
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Russell is located in Costilla County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Russell
  • Garland City ‑ Historic
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
    • Garland City is located in Costilla County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Garland City
  • La Veta
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
  • Fort Garland
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
  • Blanca
    (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
  • Sharpsdale
    (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
    • Sharpsdale is located in Huerfano County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sharpsdale
  • Badito
    (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
    • Badito is located in Huerfano County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Badito
  • Malachite
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
    • Malachite is located in Huerfano County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Malachite
  • Tioga
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Tioga is located in Huerfano County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tioga
  • Gardner
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
  • Pictou
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Pictou is located in Huerfano County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pictou
  • Continue List   (8 more) ...
    • San Luis
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
    • Stonewall
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
      • Stonewall is located in Las Animas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stonewall
    • Walsenburg
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)

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

Newspapers Published in Fir ...

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 23 newspapers that have been published in the area around Fir.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Fir, there are papers which were published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<2>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Fir.

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 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 Fir:

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>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Fir) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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>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 Fir, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.