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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 Patterson Crossing (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 Patterson Crossing. 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.

Name Variations for Patterson Crossing ...

When searching records, keep in mind that names and their spelling can change over time. Our sources include documents like maps, railroad schedules, Travel, Express and Shipping Guides. Many of these documents date from the 1800's and it's common to find spelling differences.

For example, a typical abbreviation for Patterson Crossing: Patterson Xing.

If you have information about these names (such as the reason for the change, date of change, the origin of the name), please Contact Us.

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.

Patterson Crossing is located in Las Animas 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 Las Animas County: Baca, Bent, Costilla, Huerfano, Otero, Pueblo, Colfax (NM) & Union (NM).

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

  • Las Animas County     (The home county of Patterson Crossing)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Patterson Crossing, with the one closest to Patterson Crossing listed first.
    • Model
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
    • Hoehne
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Beshoar
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
      • Beshoar is located in Las Animas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Beshoar
    • San Miguel ‑ Historic
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
      • San Miguel is located in Las Animas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for San Miguel
    • Trinchera
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
    • El Moro
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
      • El Moro is located in Las Animas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for El Moro
    • Engleville
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
      • Engleville is located in Las Animas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Engleville
    • Trinidad
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
    • Starkville
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
    • Morley
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
      • Morley is located in Las Animas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Morley
    • Sopris ‑ Historic
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
      • Sopris is located in Las Animas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sopris
    • Wootton
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Wootton is located in Las Animas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wootton
    • Branson
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
      • Branson is located in Las Animas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Branson
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 72 people
      • Former name for Branson:
      • Wilson's Switch
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Branson <1>
  • Colfax County (NM)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Patterson Crossing, with the one closest to Patterson Crossing listed first.
    • Brilliant ‑ Historic
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
      • Brilliant is located in Colfax County (NM)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brilliant
    • Raton
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
      • Raton is located in Colfax County (NM)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Raton
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 5,923 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Raton <1>
  • Union County (NM)
    • Folsom
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)

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

Cemeteries Near Patterson Crossing ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Patterson Crossing.

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 Patterson Crossing - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • Wilcox Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
  • Vigil Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
  • Barela Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
  • Los Hermanos Penitentes Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
  • Bloom Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Nola Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Mestas Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
  • Martinez Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
  • Tapia Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
  • Rivera Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
  • Cordova Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
  • Lucero Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
  • Continue List   (35 more) ...

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

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

  • Barela
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Barela is located in Las Animas County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Barela
  • Earl
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Earl is located in Las Animas County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Earl
  • Trinchera
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
  • El Moro
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
    • El Moro is located in Las Animas County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for El Moro
  • Engleville
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
    • Engleville is located in Las Animas County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Engleville
  • Trinidad
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
  • Tyrone
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
    • Tyrone is located in Las Animas County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tyrone
  • Starkville
    (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
  • Forbes ‑ Historic
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
    • Forbes is located in Las Animas County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Forbes
  • Sopris ‑ Historic
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
    • Sopris is located in Las Animas County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sopris
  • Morley
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Morley is located in Las Animas County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Morley
  • Wootton
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Wootton is located in Las Animas County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wootton
  • Continue List   (5 more) ...
    • Thatcher
      (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
      • Thatcher is located in Las Animas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Thatcher
    • Madrid ‑ Historic
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
      • Madrid is located in Las Animas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Madrid
    • Raton
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
      • Raton is located in Colfax County (NM)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Raton
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 5,923 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Raton <1>

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

Newspapers Published in Patterson Crossing ...

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 38 newspapers that have been published in the area around Patterson Crossing.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Patterson Crossing, 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 Patterson Crossing.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we 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 Patterson Crossing:

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 Patterson Crossing, 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 obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Patterson Crossing) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.