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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 Payne (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 Payne. 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 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.

Payne is located in Delta 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 Delta County: Gunnison, Mesa & Montrose.

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

  • Delta County     (The home county of Payne)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Payne, with the one closest to Payne listed first.
    • Austin
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Orchard City
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
      • Orchard City is located in Delta County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Orchard City
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 3,242 people
    • Eckert
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Cory
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Lazear
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Cedaredge
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Hotchkiss
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
    • North Delta
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
      • North Delta is located in Delta County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Delta
    • Delta
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Roubideau
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
      • Roubideau is located in Delta County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Roubideau
    • Grand Mesa
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
      • Grand Mesa is located in Delta County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grand Mesa
    • Crawford
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
    • Paonia
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
  • Gunnison County
  • Mesa County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Payne, with the one closest to Payne listed first.
    • Molina
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
    • Mesa
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Collbran
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
    • Plateau City
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
      • Plateau City is located in Mesa County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Plateau City
  • Montrose County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Payne, with the one closest to Payne listed first.
    • Olathe
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
    • Maher
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Montrose
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
    • Vernal
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
      • Vernal is located in Montrose County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Vernal
    • Uncompahgre
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
      • Uncompahgre is located in Montrose County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Uncompahgre

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

Cemeteries Near Payne ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Payne.

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

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

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

  • Crim Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Eckert Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
  • Cory Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
  • Read Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
  • Cedaredge Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
  • Memory Gardens Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Mesa View Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Delta Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Hill Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
  • Ash Mesa Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Olson Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
  • Pea Green Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Continue List   (12 more) ...
    • Olathe Cemetery
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
    • Bethlehem Cemetery
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
    • Cedar Hill Cemetery
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)

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

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

  • Hotchkiss
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
  • Delta
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
  • Chipeta
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Chipeta is located in Delta County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chipeta
  • Roubideau
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
    • Roubideau is located in Delta County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Roubideau
  • Crawford
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
  • Paonia
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
  • Escalante
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
    • Escalante is located in Delta County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Escalante
  • Maher
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
  • Montrose
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
  • Fairview
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
    • Fairview is located in Montrose County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fairview
  • Dominguez
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
    • Dominguez is located in Delta County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dominguez
  • Cedar Creek
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Cedar Creek is located in Montrose County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cedar Creek
  • Mesa
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
  • Uncompahgre
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
    • Uncompahgre is located in Montrose County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Uncompahgre

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

Newspapers Published in Payne ...

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 55 newspapers that have been published in the area around Payne.

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

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 Payne:

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 Payne, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<4>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Payne) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.