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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 Keesee (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 Keesee. 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 and doctors 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.

Keesee is located in Bent 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 Bent County: Baca, Kiowa, Las Animas, Otero & Prowers.

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

  • Bent County     (The home county of Keesee)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Keesee, with the one closest to Keesee listed first.
    • McClave
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
    • Big Bend
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
      • Big Bend is located in Bent County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Big Bend
    • Hasty
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
    • Caddoa ‑ Historic
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Caddoa is located in Bent County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Caddoa
    • Hilton
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
      • Hilton is located in Bent County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hilton
    • Fort Lyon
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
    • Las Animas
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
  • Kiowa County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Keesee, with the one closest to Keesee listed first.
    • Eads
      (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
    • Chivington
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
      • Chivington is located in Kiowa County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chivington
    • Water Valley
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Water Valley is located in Kiowa County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Water Valley
    • Galatea
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
      • Galatea is located in Kiowa County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Galatea
    • Haswell
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Prowers County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Keesee, with the one closest to Keesee listed first.
    • Wiley
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Kornman
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
      • Kornman is located in Prowers County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kornman
    • Lamar
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
      • Lamar is located in Prowers County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lamar
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 7,641 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Lamar <1>
    • Grote
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
      • Grote is located in Prowers County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grote
    • Granada
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
    • Hartman
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)

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

Cemeteries Near Keesee ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Keesee.

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

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

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

  • Wiley Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
  • The Home Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
  • Crawford Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
  • Hight Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
  • Riverside Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
  • Union Valley Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Union Valley Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Union Valley Cemetery is located outside and to the south of Hasty.
    • The Union Valley Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Hasty Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #57593 <2>
  • Mt. Olive Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Fairmount Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Little Kansas Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
  • Indian Rock Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Ft. Lyon National Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
  • Eads Pioneer Cemetery
    (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eads Pioneer Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Eads Pioneer Cemetery is located outside and to the south of Eads.
    • The Eads Pioneer Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Eads Old Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2307806 <2>
  • Continue List   (14 more) ...
    • Chivington Cemetery
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
    • Eads Cemetery
      (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
    • Las Animas Cemetery
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)

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

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

  • Prowers
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • Prowers is located in Bent County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Prowers
  • Lamar
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
    • Lamar is located in Prowers County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lamar
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 7,641 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Lamar <1>
  • Caddoa ‑ Historic
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Caddoa is located in Bent County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Caddoa
  • Hilton
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
    • Hilton is located in Bent County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hilton
  • Carlton
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
    • Carlton is located in Prowers County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Carlton
  • Eads
    (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
  • Las Animas
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
  • Chivington
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Chivington is located in Kiowa County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chivington
  • Granada
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
  • Galatea
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Galatea is located in Kiowa County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Galatea
  • Brandon
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Brandon is located in Kiowa County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brandon
  • Water Valley
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Water Valley is located in Kiowa County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Water Valley

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

Newspapers Published in Keesee ...

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 22 newspapers that have been published in the area around Keesee.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Keesee, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Keesee.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first visit 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 Keesee:

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 Keesee, 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- Keesee) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.