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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 Blanco (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 Blanco. 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 northeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals 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.

Blanco is located in San Juan County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of San Juan County: Apache (AZ), Archuleta (CO), La Plata (CO), Montezuma (CO), McKinley, Rio Arriba, Sandoval & San Juan (UT).

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

  • San Juan County     (The home county of Blanco)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Blanco, with the one closest to Blanco listed first.
    • Turley
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Bloomfield
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Bloomfield have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bloomfield
      • Bloomfield is located in San Juan County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 7,643 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Bloomfield <2>
    • Aztec
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Navajo Dam
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Flora Vista
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Flora Vista have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Flora Vista
      • Flora Vista is located in San Juan County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Flora Vista <2>
    • Huerfano
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Huerfano have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Huerfano
      • Huerfano is located in San Juan County
    • Farmington
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
    • Napi HQ
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Napi HQ. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Napi HQ
      • Napi HQ is located in San Juan County
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Napi HQ
      • From Blanco to Napi HQ
    • La Plata
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Upper Fruitland
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
    • Kirtland
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Kirtland have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kirtland
      • Kirtland is located in San Juan County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Kirtland <2>
    • Ojo Amarillo
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Ojo Amarillo have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ojo Amarillo
      • Ojo Amarillo is located in San Juan County
  • Rio Arriba County
    • Navajo City
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Navajo City have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Navajo City
      • Navajo City is located in Rio Arriba County
  • Archuleta County (CO)
  • La Plata County (CO)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Blanco, with the one closest to Blanco listed first.
    • Bondad
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Bondad. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bondad
      • Bondad is located in La Plata County (CO)
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Bondad
      • From Blanco to Bondad
    • La Boca
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for La Boca have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for La Boca
      • La Boca is located in La Plata County (CO)
    • Allison
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Ignacio
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)

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

Cemeteries Near Blanco ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Blanco.

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.

If you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our selection of Genealogy Websites (see below).

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Blanco, with the one closest to Blanco 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.<6>

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

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

  • Bloomfield
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Bloomfield have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bloomfield
    • Bloomfield is located in San Juan County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 7,643 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Bloomfield <2>
  • Aztec
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Flora Vista
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Flora Vista have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Flora Vista
    • Flora Vista is located in San Juan County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Flora Vista <2>
  • Farmington
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
  • La Boca
    (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for La Boca have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for La Boca
    • La Boca is located in La Plata County (CO)
  • La Plata
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
  • Rosa ‑ Historic
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Rosa have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rosa
    • Rosa is located in Rio Arriba County
  • Ignacio
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)

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

Newspapers Published in Blanco ...

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 34 newspapers that have been published in the area around Blanco.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Blanco, there are papers which were published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<5>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Blanco.

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 Blanco:

Unfortunately, we don't know of a website for Blanco. If you can help, please contact us through our Feedback Page.

The official website for San Juan County: www.co.san-juan.nm.us/

The official website for State of New Mexico: https://www.nm.gov/

Footnotes ...

<1>The location has been supplied by the Geographic Names Information System - which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While these values should be definitive, we found that accuracy can vary and you should double-check the location if accuracy is required.
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<3>An 'estimated' location is one where we have been given GPS coordinates, but are unable to verify the accuracy of those coordinates. That said, we have some confidence that we have placed the marker near the actual location. A typical reason for being unable to verify a location is that it might be on private property or maybe historic and gone without an obvious trace.
<4>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.
<5>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or 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- Blanco) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Blanco. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 36.7238, Longitude: -107.8256    
<6>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 Blanco, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 28 Apr 2025