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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 Galena (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 Galena. 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 northwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals and doctors were in the next county to the west. 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 west 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.

Galena is located in Fremont 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 Fremont County: Chaffee, Custer, El Paso, Park, Pueblo, Saguache & Teller.

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

  • Fremont County     (The home county of Galena)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Galena, with the one closest to Galena listed first.
    • Coal Creek
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Rockvale
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Williamsburg
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Williamsburg is located in Fremont County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Williamsburg
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 682 people
    • Lincoln Park
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
      • Lincoln Park is located in Fremont County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lincoln Park
    • Prospect Heights
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
      • Prospect Heights is located in Fremont County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Prospect Heights
    • Brookside
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Brookside is located in Fremont County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brookside
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 261 people
    • Florence
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Sunset City
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Sunset City is located in Fremont County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sunset City
    • Canon City
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
    • Buckskin Joe
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
      • Buckskin Joe is located in Fremont County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Buckskin Joe
    • Penrose
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Echo
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
      • Echo is located in Fremont County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Echo
  • Custer County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Galena, with the one closest to Galena listed first.
    • Querida ‑ Historic
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
      • Querida is located in Custer County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Querida
      • Querida has also been known as:
      • Bassick
      • Querida Junction
    • Greenwood
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
      • Greenwood is located in Custer County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Greenwood
    • Wetmore
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
    • Rosita
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
      • Rosita is located in Custer County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rosita
    • Silver Cliff
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Westcliffe
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Ula ‑ Historic
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
      • Ula is located in Custer County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ula
  • Huerfano County
    • Bradford
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
      • Bradford is located in Huerfano County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bradford
  • Pueblo County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Galena, with the one closest to Galena listed first.
    • Siloam
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
      • Siloam is located in Pueblo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Siloam
    • Beulah
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Beulah Valley
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
      • Beulah Valley is located in Pueblo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Beulah Valley
    • Stone City
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Stone City is located in Pueblo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stone City
    • Pueblo West
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
    • Rye
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Rye is located in Pueblo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rye
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 253 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Rye <1>
  • Saguache County
    • Crestone
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)

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

Cemeteries Near Galena ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Galena.

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

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

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

  • Union Highland Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Fremont Memory Gardens Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
  • Mountain Vale Memory Gardens
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
  • Lakeside Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
  • Greenwood Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
  • IOOF Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
  • Rosita Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
  • San Juan Bautisa Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Silver Cliff Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Abbey Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
  • Ula Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Penrose Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
  • Continue List   (11 more) ...
    • Pines Cemetery
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pines Cemetery
      • The Pines Cemetery has also been known as:
      • Cusacks Cemetery Of The Pines
    • The Pines Cemetery
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
    • Hope Cemetery
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)

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.<3>

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

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

  • Chandler ‑ Historic
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Chandler is located in Fremont County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chandler
  • Coal Creek
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Rockvale
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Greenwood
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
    • Greenwood is located in Custer County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Greenwood
  • Wetmore
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
  • Williamsburg
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Williamsburg is located in Fremont County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Williamsburg
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 682 people
  • Rosita
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
    • Rosita is located in Custer County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rosita
  • Brookside
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Brookside is located in Fremont County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brookside
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 261 people
  • Silver Cliff
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
  • Florence
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Westcliffe
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Canon City
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
  • Continue List   (12 more) ...
    • Parkdale
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
      • Parkdale is located in Fremont County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Parkdale
    • Fairview
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Fairview is located in Custer County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fairview
    • Siloam
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
      • Siloam is located in Pueblo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Siloam

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

Newspapers Published in Galena ...

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 34 newspapers that have been published in the area around Galena.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Galena, there are papers which were published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Galena.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we like to start with 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 Galena:

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