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A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
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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 Simpson (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 Simpson. 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.

Simpson 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 Simpson. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Simpson:

  • Las Animas County     (The home county of Simpson)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Simpson, with the one closest to Simpson listed first.
    • Thatcher
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
      • Thatcher is located in Las Animas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Thatcher
    • Houghton ‑ Historic
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
      • Houghton is located in Las Animas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Houghton
    • Model
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Hoehne
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Beshoar
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
      • Beshoar is located in Las Animas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Beshoar
    • El Moro
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
      • El Moro is located in Las Animas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for El Moro
    • Ludlow ‑ Historic
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
      • Ludlow is located in Las Animas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ludlow
    • Aguilar
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
    • Troy ‑ Historic
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
      • Troy is located in Las Animas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Troy
    • Engleville
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Engleville is located in Las Animas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Engleville
    • Trinidad
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
    • San Miguel ‑ Historic
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
      • San Miguel is located in Las Animas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for San Miguel
  • Huerfano County
    • Cuchara Junction
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
      • Cuchara Junction is located in Huerfano County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cuchara Junction
  • Otero County
    • Bloom
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
      • Bloom is located in Otero County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bloom

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

Cemeteries Near Simpson ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Simpson.

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

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

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

  • Simpson Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
  • Thorp Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
  • Wilcox Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
  • Valdez Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
  • Bloom Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Mestas Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
  • Chicosa Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
  • Martinez Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Los Hermanos Penitentes Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
  • Pleasant View Cemetery
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
  • Rivera Cemetery
    (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
  • Vigil Cemetery
    (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
  • Continue List   (14 more) ...
    • Gallegos Cemetery
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
    • St. Anthony Cemetery
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
    • Valdez 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 Simpson in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Simpson.

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

  • Tyrone
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Tyrone is located in Las Animas County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tyrone
  • Thatcher
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Thatcher is located in Las Animas County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Thatcher
  • Earl
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Earl is located in Las Animas County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Earl
  • El Moro
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
    • El Moro is located in Las Animas County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for El Moro
  • Barela
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
    • Barela is located in Las Animas County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Barela
  • Aguilar
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
  • Forbes ‑ Historic
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Forbes is located in Las Animas County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Forbes
  • Troy ‑ Historic
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
    • Troy is located in Las Animas County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Troy
  • Trinidad
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Engleville
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Engleville is located in Las Animas County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Engleville
  • Rouse
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
    • Rouse is located in Huerfano County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rouse

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

Newspapers Published in Simpson ...

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 66 newspapers that have been published in the area around Simpson.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Simpson, there are papers which were published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Simpson.

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 professional and volunteer 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 Simpson:

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 Simpson, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<3>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- Simpson) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.