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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 Black Lake (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 Black Lake. 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 Black Lake ...

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.

Although we can't give a definitive list, hopefully the following will give you a feel for the variations that might occur.

For example, a typical abbreviation for Black Lake: Black Lk.

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

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 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 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.

Black Lake is located in Colfax 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 Colfax County: Costilla (CO), Las Animas (CO), Harding, Mora, Taos & Union.

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

  • Colfax County     (The home county of Black Lake)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Black Lake, with the one closest to Black Lake listed first.
    • Angel Fire
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Lakeview Pines
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
      • Lakeview Pines is located in Colfax County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lakeview Pines
    • Eagle Nest
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
    • Idlewild
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
      • Idlewild is located in Colfax County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Idlewild
    • Virginia City ‑ Historic
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
      • Virginia City is located in Colfax County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Virginia City
    • Ute Park
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Cimarron
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Miami
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
  • Mora County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Black Lake, with the one closest to Black Lake listed first.
    • Guadalupita
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
    • Halls Peak ‑ Historic
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Halls Peak is located in Mora County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Halls Peak
    • Los Huerros
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Los Huerros is located in Mora County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Los Huerros
    • Chacon
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Ocate
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Ojo Feliz
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
    • Holman
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
    • Cleveland
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
    • Mora
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
    • Rainsville
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
    • La Cueva
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
      • La Cueva is located in Mora County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for La Cueva
    • Pacheco Village
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
      • Pacheco Village is located in Mora County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pacheco Village
    • Abuelo
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
      • Abuelo is located in Mora County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Abuelo
  • Taos County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Black Lake, with the one closest to Black Lake listed first.
    • Valle Escondido
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Shady Brook
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
      • Shady Brook is located in Taos County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shady Brook
    • Taos Pueblo
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
      • Taos Pueblo is located in Taos County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Taos Pueblo
    • Angostura
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
      • Angostura is located in Taos County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Angostura
    • Tres Ritos
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
      • Tres Ritos is located in Taos County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tres Ritos
    • Canon
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
      • Canon is located in Taos County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Canon
    • El Prado
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Taos
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Ranchos de Taos
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
    • Talpa
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
      • Talpa is located in Taos County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Talpa
    • Ranchito
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
    • Arroyo Seco
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Taos Ski Valley
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)

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

Cemeteries Near Black Lake ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Black Lake.

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 Black Lake - one of the links might be able to help.

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Black Lake, with the one closest to Black Lake 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.<5>

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

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

  • Guadalupita
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
  • Halls Peak ‑ Historic
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Halls Peak is located in Mora County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Halls Peak
  • Ocate
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Lucero
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
    • Lucero is located in Mora County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lucero
  • Taos
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
  • Mora
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
  • Elizabethtown ‑ Historic
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
    • Elizabethtown is located in Colfax County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elizabethtown
  • Arroyo Seco
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
  • La Cueva
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
    • La Cueva is located in Mora County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for La Cueva
  • Cimarron
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
  • Penasco
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
  • Arroyo Hondo
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)

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

Newspapers Published in Black Lake ...

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 55 newspapers that have been published in the area around Black Lake.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Black Lake, 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 Black Lake.

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 Black Lake:

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 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Black Lake) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<4>To help visualize the location of the cemetery, we've drawn a straight line between the communities of Mora and Guadalupita. The cemetery can be found near that line and roughly halfway between the two communities. Remember that this is just an approximate location.
<5>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 Black Lake, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.