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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 Torres (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 Torres. 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 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.

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

  • Las Animas County     (The home county of Torres)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Torres, with the one closest to Torres listed first.
    • Monument Park
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
      • Monument Park is located in Las Animas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Monument Park
    • Weston
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
    • Segundo
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
    • Valdez
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
      • Valdez is located in Las Animas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Valdez
    • Boncarbo
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Madrid ‑ Historic
      (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
      • Madrid is located in Las Animas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Madrid
    • Gulnare
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
    • Cokedale
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
      • Cokedale is located in Las Animas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cokedale
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 121 people
    • Sopris ‑ Historic
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
      • Sopris is located in Las Animas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sopris
    • Starkville
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
    • Morley
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
      • Morley is located in Las Animas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Morley
    • Trinidad
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
  • Costilla County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Torres, with the one closest to Torres listed first.
    • Chama
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
    • San Pablo
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
    • San Luis
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Garcia
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
    • San Acacio
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
    • Garland City ‑ Historic
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Garland City is located in Costilla County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Garland City
  • Huerfano County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Torres, with the one closest to Torres listed first.
    • Cuchara
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
    • La Veta
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
  • Colfax County (NM)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Torres, with the one closest to Torres listed first.
    • Brilliant ‑ Historic
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
      • Brilliant is located in Colfax County (NM)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brilliant
    • Lauretta ‑ Historic
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Lauretta is located in Colfax County (NM)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lauretta
  • Taos County (NM)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Torres, with the one closest to Torres listed first.
    • Ventero
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
      • Ventero is located in Taos County (NM)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ventero
    • Amalia
      (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
      • Amalia is located in Taos County (NM)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Amalia
    • Costilla
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)

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

Cemeteries Near Torres ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Torres.

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

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

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

  • Tercio Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
  • Stonewall Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
  • Pacheca Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Weston Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Hicks Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
  • Catskill Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
  • San Juan Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
  • San Juan Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
  • Scott Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
  • Prince Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
  • Chama Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
  • Burro Canyon Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
  • Continue List   (15 more) ...
    • San Pedro Cemetery
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Ponil Park
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
    • Jarosa Cemetery
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)

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.<4>

While we didn't find Torres in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Torres.

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

  • Stonewall
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Stonewall is located in Las Animas County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stonewall
  • Weston
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
  • San Luis
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
  • Madrid ‑ Historic
    (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
    • Madrid is located in Las Animas County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Madrid
  • Gulnare
    (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
  • Costilla
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
  • Sopris ‑ Historic
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
    • Sopris is located in Las Animas County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sopris
  • Starkville
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)

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

Newspapers Published in Torres ...

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 Torres.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Torres, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Torres.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we begin with the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These 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 Torres:

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