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A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of New Mexico >> San Miguel County >> Alta Vista >> Genealogy HelperIndex...

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 Alta Vista (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 Alta Vista. 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.

Alta Vista is located in San Miguel County.

To see how the shape of New Mexico's counties may have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of San Miguel County: Guadalupe, Harding, Mora, Quay, Santa Fe & Torrance.

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

  • San Miguel County     (The home county of Alta Vista)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Alta Vista, with the one closest to Alta Vista listed first.
    • Trementina ‑ Historic
      (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
      • Trementina is located in San Miguel County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Trementina
    • Ancon
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
      • Ancon is located in San Miguel County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ancon
    • Kroenigs
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Kroenigs is located in San Miguel County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kroenigs
    • Los Alamos
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Los Alamos is located in San Miguel County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Los Alamos
    • Apache Springs
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
      • Apache Springs is located in San Miguel County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Apache Springs
    • Las Vegas
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
    • Romero
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
      • Romero is located in San Miguel County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Romero
    • Las Vegas Town
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
      • Las Vegas Town is located in San Miguel County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Las Vegas Town
    • Tecolote
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
      • Tecolote is located in San Miguel County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tecolote
  • Guadalupe County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Alta Vista, with the one closest to Alta Vista listed first.
    • Colonias
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
      • Colonias is located in Guadalupe County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Colonias
    • Dilia
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Dilia is located in Guadalupe County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dilia
  • Harding County
    • Armenta Plaza ‑ Historic
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Armenta Plaza is located in Harding County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Armenta Plaza
  • Mora County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Alta Vista, with the one closest to Alta Vista listed first.
    • Shoemaker
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
      • Shoemaker is located in Mora County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shoemaker
    • Valmora
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Valmora is located in Mora County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Valmora
    • Watrous
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
      • Watrous is located in Mora County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Watrous
    • Loma Parda ‑ Historic
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
      • Loma Parda is located in Mora County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Loma Parda

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

Cemeteries Near Alta Vista ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Alta Vista.

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 Alta Vista - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

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

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

  • Shoemaker
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
    • Shoemaker is located in Mora County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shoemaker
  • Kroenigs
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Kroenigs is located in San Miguel County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kroenigs
  • Watrous
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Watrous is located in Mora County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Watrous
  • Onava
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Onava is located in San Miguel County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Onava
  • Tiptonville
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Tiptonville is located in Mora County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tiptonville
  • Los Alamos
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Los Alamos is located in San Miguel County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Los Alamos
  • East Las Vegas ‑ Historic
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
    • East Las Vegas is located in San Miguel County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for East Las Vegas
  • Las Vegas
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
  • Romero
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
    • Romero is located in San Miguel County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Romero
  • Loma Parda ‑ Historic
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Loma Parda is located in Mora County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Loma Parda

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

Newspapers Published in Alta Vista ...

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 54 newspapers that have been published in the area around Alta Vista.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Alta Vista, there are papers which were published within 27 miles [43.5 km]<2>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Alta Vista.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we like to start 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 Alta Vista:

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