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Our Genealogy Helper

Introduction ...

So far, we found very little information about Derry. The little that we've found leads us believe that the community is historic.<1>

We've added Derry to our Gazetteer with the hope that we can develop more information. If you can help us with Derry, please Contact Us.


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 Derry (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 Derry. 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 hospitals and 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.

Although our information shows that the community of Derry is historic, it would have been located within present day Sierra 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 Sierra County: Catron, Dona Ana, Grant, Lincoln, Luna, Otero & Socorro.

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

  • Sierra County     (The home county of Derry)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Derry, with the one closest to Derry listed first.
    • Arrey
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Caballo
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
    • Lake Valley ‑ Historic
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
      • Lake Valley is located in Sierra County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lake Valley
    • Las Palomas
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
      • Las Palomas is located in Sierra County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Las Palomas
    • Hillsboro
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
    • Williamsburg
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
    • Truth or Consequences
      (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
    • Cutter ‑ Historic
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
      • Cutter is located in Sierra County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cutter
    • Elephant Butte
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
    • Rock Canyon
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
      • Rock Canyon is located in Sierra County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rock Canyon
    • Engle ‑ Historic
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
      • Engle is located in Sierra County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Engle
  • Dona Ana County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Derry, with the one closest to Derry listed first.
    • Garfield
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Salem
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Hatch
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Hatch is located in Dona Ana County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hatch
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,678 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Hatch <2>
    • Rincon
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Rincon is located in Dona Ana County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rincon
    • Tonuco
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
      • Tonuco is located in Dona Ana County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tonuco
    • Radium Springs
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Luna County
    • Nutt ‑ Historic
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
      • Nutt is located in Luna County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nutt

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

Cemeteries Near Derry ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Derry.

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

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

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

  • Caballo Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
  • Hatch Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Placitas Hill Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Rodey Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Rincon Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Palomas Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
  • Cutter Cemetery
    (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
  • Graham Cemetery
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
  • Elephant Butte Cemetery
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)

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.

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

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

  • Hatch
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Hatch is located in Dona Ana County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hatch
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,678 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Hatch <2>
  • Rincon
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Rincon is located in Dona Ana County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rincon
  • Lake Valley ‑ Historic
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
    • Lake Valley is located in Sierra County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lake Valley
  • Las Palomas
    (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
    • Las Palomas is located in Sierra County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Las Palomas
  • Hillsboro
    (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
  • Tonuco
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Tonuco is located in Dona Ana County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tonuco
  • Cutter ‑ Historic
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Cutter is located in Sierra County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cutter
  • Kingston ‑ Historic
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
    • Kingston is located in Sierra County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kingston

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

Newspapers Published in Derry ...

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 14 newspapers that have been published in the area around Derry.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Derry, there are papers which were published within 23 miles [37 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Derry.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we begin with 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 Derry:

Footnotes ...

<1>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 Derry, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<3>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Derry) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.