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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 Whiterock (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 Whiterock. 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 Whiterock ...

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.

Another variation: White Rock.

You might be interested in other communities that are also named Whiterock. More information can be found on our Tidbits & Trivia Page for Whiterock.

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 northeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors were in the next county to the east. 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 east 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.

Whiterock is located in Pueblo 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 Pueblo County: Crowley, Custer, El Paso, Fremont, Huerfano, Las Animas, Lincoln & Otero.

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

  • Pueblo County     (The home county of Whiterock)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Whiterock, with the one closest to Whiterock listed first.
    • Boone
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
    • Fort Reynolds
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Fort Reynolds is located in Pueblo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fort Reynolds
    • Avondale
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
  • Crowley County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Whiterock, with the one closest to Whiterock listed first.
    • Olney Springs
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Crowley
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
  • Las Animas County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Whiterock, with the one closest to Whiterock listed first.
    • Houghton ‑ Historic
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
      • Houghton is located in Las Animas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Houghton
    • Thatcher
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
      • Thatcher is located in Las Animas County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Thatcher
  • Otero County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Whiterock, with the one closest to Whiterock listed first.
    • Bloom
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Bloom is located in Otero County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bloom
    • Fowler
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
    • Manzanola
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Hawley
      (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
      • Hawley is located in Otero County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hawley
    • Benton
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
      • Benton is located in Otero County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Benton
    • Rocky Ford
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Swink
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)

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

Cemeteries Near Whiterock ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Whiterock.

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

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

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

  • Finn Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
  • Timpas Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
  • Fowler Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
  • Thorp Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
  • Manzanola Mountainview Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
  • Mt. View Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
  • Olney Springs Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
  • Doyle Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
  • San Jose Church Cemetery
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
  • Continue List   (6 more) ...
    • Simpson Cemetery
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
    • Hillcrest Cemetery
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Valley View Cemetery
      (25 miles [40.2 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.<3>

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

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

  • Timpas
    (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
    • Timpas is located in Otero County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Timpas
  • Fowler
    (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
  • Nepesta
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
    • Nepesta is located in Pueblo County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nepesta
  • Thatcher
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
    • Thatcher is located in Las Animas County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Thatcher
  • Benton
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
    • Benton is located in Otero County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Benton
  • Rocky Ford
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
  • Boone
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
  • Tyrone
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
    • Tyrone is located in Las Animas County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tyrone

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

Newspapers Published in Whiterock ...

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 17 newspapers that have been published in the area around Whiterock.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Whiterock, there are papers which were published within 26 miles [41.8 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Whiterock.

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 helpful 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 Whiterock:

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