Our Genealogy Helper
Introduction ...
Although we found mention of Viola during our research, we have little information about it.<1> Given the context of how Viola was mentioned, we believe that it was a community rather than a locale or some type of landmark. We have done a cursory search and if it was a community, we haven't been able to find any evidence that it still exists..
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 Viola (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 Viola. 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 hospitals and 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.
Viola 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 Viola. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Viola:
- Las Animas County (The home county of Viola)
- The following are listed by their distance from Viola, with the one closest to Viola listed first.
- Sopris ‑ Historic
(Less than 2 miles to the east)
- Sopris is located in Las Animas County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sopris
- Cokedale
(Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
- Cokedale is located in Las Animas County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cokedale
- Population from the 2020 Census: 121 people
- Madrid ‑ Historic
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
- Madrid is located in Las Animas County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Madrid
- Starkville
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
- Trinidad
(5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
- Valdez
(5 miles [8 km] to the west)
- Valdez is located in Las Animas County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Valdez
- Engleville
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
- Engleville is located in Las Animas County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Engleville
- Segundo
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
- Boncarbo
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
- Morley
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
- Morley is located in Las Animas County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Morley
- El Moro
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
- El Moro is located in Las Animas County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for El Moro
- San Miguel ‑ Historic
(11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
- San Miguel is located in Las Animas County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for San Miguel
- Wootton
(11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
- Wootton is located in Las Animas County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wootton
- Colfax County (NM)
- The following are listed by their distance from Viola, with the one closest to Viola listed first.
- Brilliant ‑ Historic
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
- Brilliant is located in Colfax County (NM)
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brilliant
- Raton
(18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
For an expanded list of the communities that are closest to Viola, see our County-by-County Page for Viola.
Cemeteries Near Viola ...
Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Viola.
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 Viola - one of the links might be able to help.
If not found below, our Cemetery List for Viola covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.
The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Viola, with the one closest to Viola listed first.
- Tijeras Cemetery
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
- Carpios Cemetery
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
- Vigil Cemetery
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
- Jansen Cemetery
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
- Starkville Cemetery
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
- Masonic Cemetery
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
- Burro Canyon Cemetery
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
- Catholic Cemetery
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
- Garcia Cemetery
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
- San Juan Cemetery
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
- San Juan Cemetery
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
- Valdez Cemetery
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
- Continue List (35 more) ...
- Cordova Cemetery
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
- Albertson Cemetery
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
- Gallegos Cemetery
(10 miles [16.1 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 Viola in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Viola.
These communities are listed based on their distance from Viola, with the one closest to Viola listed first.
- Sopris ‑ Historic
(Less than 2 miles to the east)
- Sopris is located in Las Animas County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sopris
- Madrid ‑ Historic
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
- Madrid is located in Las Animas County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Madrid
- Starkville
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
- Trinidad
(5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
- Engleville
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
- Engleville is located in Las Animas County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Engleville
- Morley
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
- Morley is located in Las Animas County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Morley
- Forbes ‑ Historic
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
- Forbes is located in Las Animas County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Forbes
- El Moro
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
- El Moro is located in Las Animas County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for El Moro
- Wootton
(11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
- Wootton is located in Las Animas County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wootton
- Weston
(13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
- Gulnare
(15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
- Raton
(18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
- Continue List (6 more) ...
- Barela
(18 miles [29 km] to the east)
- Barela is located in Las Animas County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Barela
- Aguilar
(18 miles [29 km] to the north)
- Dillon
(20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
- Dillon is located in Colfax County (NM)
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dillon
We've also created an expanded list of communities that existed in the 1890's and were located in the area around Viola. See our List of 1890's Communities around Viola.
Newspapers Published in Viola ...
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 31 newspapers that have been published in the area around Viola.
Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Viola, there are papers which were published within 18 miles [29 km]<5>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Viola.
Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...
When we do our genealogical research, we first turn to 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 Viola:
- Websites specific to Colorado
- Pages specific to Las Animas County
- Genealogy information for nearby counties
- Cemetery Information and Directories for Colorado
Footnotes ...
| <1> | If we encounter the name of what might be a community, our methodology is to add that name to our Gazetteer. For example, we might find a sentence like "He went north past Viola and then turned west". While Viola could be some kind of landmark, we think that it's more likely to be a community. We've added Viola as a placeholder with the hope that we'll be able to add more information in the future.
Just as a reminder: Our definition of a community is rather broad and includes those places (or areas) where several families lived and had a name which identified that place. For example, you might hear somebody say that they are going over to Mile's to see Pete ... Mile's is just a gas station and a couple of homes at the crossroads. While it might not be on the map, everybody in the area knows it by that name.
Places of interest include buildings at a crossroad, several families clustered in a hollow or maybe the location of a way station. It also includes places like mines, lumber camps, ferry crossings, etc. The community might still exist, is now gone or only existed for just a short period of time.
Also keep in mind that Viola could have been on the original document by mistake, misspelled, the original/alternate name of a community that we've listed elsewhere or was placed in the wrong county. Sometimes a post office or train station would have a different name than the community where it's located, so two names might be referring to the same community - we're working to straighten it all out.
Since confusion between counties is common, we searched and weren't able to find another Colorado community named Viola. |
| <2> | While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program. |
| <3> | 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. |
| <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 Viola, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy. |
| <5> | 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 drawn from Point A (ie- Viola) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'. |