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 Nelson (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 Nelson. 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 southeast 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 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 east 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.
Nelson is located in Morgan 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 Morgan County: Adams, Logan, Washington & Weld.
Below are the counties that are near Nelson. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Nelson:
- Morgan County (The home county of Nelson)
- The following are listed by their distance from Nelson, with the one closest to Nelson listed first.
- Brush
(Less than 2 miles to the east)
- Snyder
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
- Fort Morgan
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
- Hillrose
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
- Log Lane Village
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
- Log Lane Village is located in Morgan County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Log Lane Village
- Population from the 2020 Census: 848 people
- Twelvemile Corner
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
- Twelvemile Corner is located in Morgan County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Twelvemile Corner
- Weldona
(17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
- Wiggins
(21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
- Orchard
(24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
- Hoyt
(27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
- Hoyt is located in Morgan County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hoyt
- Adams County
- Shamrock
(26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
- Shamrock is located in Adams County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shamrock
- Logan County
- The following are listed by their distance from Nelson, with the one closest to Nelson listed first.
- Merino
(22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
- Willard ‑ Historic
(22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
- Willard is located in Logan County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Willard
- Atwood
(28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
- Washington County
- The following are listed by their distance from Nelson, with the one closest to Nelson listed first.
- Pinneo ‑ Historic
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
- Pinneo is located in Washington County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pinneo
- Midway ‑ Historic
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
- Midway is located in Washington County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Midway
- Messex
(16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
- Messex is located in Washington County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Messex
- Xenia ‑ Historic
(17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
- Xenia is located in Washington County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Xenia
- Xenia has also been known as:
- Cody
- Woodrow
(18 miles [29 km] to the south)
- Rago ‑ Historic
(21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
- Rago is located in Washington County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rago
- Akron
(24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
- Curtis ‑ Historic
(29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
- Curtis is located in Washington County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Curtis
- Weld County
- The following are listed by their distance from Nelson, with the one closest to Nelson listed first.
- Stoneham
(24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
- Raymer
(26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
- Raymer is located in Weld County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Raymer
- Population from the 2020 Census: 120 people
- Raymer has also been known as:
- New Raymer
- Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Raymer <1>
For an expanded list of the communities that are closest to Nelson, see our County-by-County Page for Nelson.
Cemeteries Near Nelson ...
Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Nelson.
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 Nelson - one of the links might be able to help.
If not found below, our Cemetery List for Nelson covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.
The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Nelson, with the one closest to Nelson listed first.
- Eben - Ezer Lutheran Care Center Cemetery
(Less than 2 miles to the east)
- Brush Cemetery
(Less than 2 miles to the east)
- J. L. Brush Memorial Cemetery
(Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
- Presbyterian Church Columbarium
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
- Riverside Cemetery
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
- Weldona Cemetery
(16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
- Adena Cemetery
(19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
- Merino Cemetery
(20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
- Wiggins Cemetery
(20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
- Gebaurer Family Cemetery
(21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
- Prairie Lawn Cemetery
(22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
- Akron Cemetery
(23 miles [37 km] to the east)
- Continue List (10 more) ...
- Prairie View Cemetery
(24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
- St. Joseph's Cemetery
(25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
- Hoyt Cemetery
(26 miles [41.8 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.<2>
While we didn't find Nelson in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Nelson.
These communities are listed based on their distance from Nelson, with the one closest to Nelson listed first.
- Brush
(Less than 2 miles to the east)
- Fort Morgan
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
- Pinneo ‑ Historic
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
- Pinneo is located in Washington County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pinneo
- Balzac
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
- Balzac is located in Morgan County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Balzac
- Merino
(22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
- Willard ‑ Historic
(22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
- Willard is located in Logan County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Willard
- Goodrich
(22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
- Goodrich is located in Morgan County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Goodrich
- Stoneham
(24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
- Akron
(24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
- Raymer
(26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
- Raymer is located in Weld County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Raymer
- Population from the 2020 Census: 120 people
- Raymer has also been known as:
- New Raymer
- Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Raymer <1>
- Atwood
(28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
- Curtis ‑ Historic
(29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
- Curtis is located in Washington County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Curtis
We've also created an expanded list of communities that existed in the 1890's and were located in the area around Nelson. See our List of 1890's Communities around Nelson.
Newspapers Published in Nelson ...
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 Nelson.
Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Nelson, there are papers which were published within 24 miles [38.6 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Nelson.
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 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 Nelson:
- Websites specific to Colorado
- Pages specific to Morgan County
- Genealogy information for nearby counties
- Adams County
- Logan County
- Washington County
- Weld County
- Cemetery Information and Directories for Colorado
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> | 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 Nelson, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy. |
| <3> | Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or 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- Nelson) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'. |