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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 Gerrard (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 Gerrard. 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 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.

Gerrard is located in Rio Grande 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 Rio Grande County: Alamosa, Archuleta, Conejos, Mineral & Saguache.

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

  • Rio Grande County     (The home county of Gerrard)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Gerrard, with the one closest to Gerrard listed first.
    • Agua Ramon
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
    • South Fork
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for South Fork have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Fork
      • South Fork is located in Rio Grande County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 425 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for South Fork <2>
    • Del Norte
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
    • Summitville ‑ Historic
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
    • Jasper ‑ Historic
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Jasper. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jasper
      • Jasper is located in Rio Grande County
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Jasper
      • From Gerrard to Jasper
    • Monte Vista
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Monte Vista have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Monte Vista
      • Monte Vista is located in Rio Grande County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 4,067 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Monte Vista <2>
    • Center
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
    • Homelake
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Homelake have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Homelake
      • Homelake is located in Rio Grande County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Homelake <2>
  • Conejos County
  • Mineral County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Gerrard, with the one closest to Gerrard listed first.
    • Spar City ‑ Historic
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Spar City have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spar City
      • Spar City is located in Mineral County
    • Creede
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Bachelor City ‑ Historic
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Bachelor City have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bachelor City
      • Bachelor City is located in Mineral County

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

Cemeteries Near Gerrard ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Gerrard.

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

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

  • Del Norte Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Del Norte Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Del Norte Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Valdeses Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Valdeses Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Valdeses Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • San Luis Valley Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the San Luis Valley Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the San Luis Valley Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Lariat Cemetery
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
  • Monte Vista Cemetery
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
  • Creede Cemetery
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
  • McCoy Cemetery
    (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the McCoy Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the McCoy Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Rock Creek Cemetery
    (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Rock Creek Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Rock Creek Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.

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.<5>

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

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

  • South Fork
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for South Fork have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Fork
    • South Fork is located in Rio Grande County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 425 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for South Fork <2>
  • Del Norte
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
  • Summitville ‑ Historic
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
  • Jasper ‑ Historic
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Jasper. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jasper
    • Jasper is located in Rio Grande County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Jasper
    • From Gerrard to Jasper
  • La Garita
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for La Garita have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for La Garita
    • La Garita is located in Saguache County
  • Creede
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Platoro
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
  • Monte Vista
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Monte Vista have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Monte Vista
    • Monte Vista is located in Rio Grande County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 4,067 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Monte Vista <2>

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

Newspapers Published in Gerrard ...

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 26 newspapers that have been published in the area around Gerrard.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Gerrard, there are papers which were published within 24 miles [38.6 km]<6>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Gerrard.

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 Gerrard:

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

The official website for Rio Grande County: www.riograndecounty.org/

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

Footnotes ...

<1>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.
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<3>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.
<4>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.
<5>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 Gerrard, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<6>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 drawn from Point A (ie- Gerrard) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Gerrard. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 37.6801, Longitude: -106.5879    









 

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This page was last modified/updated: 28 Apr 2025