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 Dona Ana (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 Dona Ana. 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 southwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals were in the next county to the west. Almost all of the nearby churches and cemeteries were in the county to the south.
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 south 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.
Dona Ana is located in Dona Ana 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 Dona Ana County: Luna, Otero, Sierra & El Paso (TX).
Below are the counties that are near Dona Ana. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Dona Ana:
- Dona Ana County (The home county of Dona Ana)
- The following are listed by their distance from Dona Ana, with the one closest to Dona Ana listed first.
- San Ysidro
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
- San Ysidro is located in Dona Ana County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for San Ysidro
- Hill
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
- Hill is located in Dona Ana County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hill
- Las Cruces
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
- Leasburg ‑ Historic
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
- Leasburg is located in Dona Ana County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Leasburg
- Fairacres
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
- Spaceport City
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
- Spaceport City is located in Dona Ana County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spaceport City
- Mesilla Park
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
- Mesilla
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
- University Park
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
- University Park is located in Dona Ana County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for University Park
- Radium Springs
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
- Organ ‑ Historic
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
- Organ is located in Dona Ana County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Organ
- Mesquite
(16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
- Tonuco
(17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
- Tonuco is located in Dona Ana County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tonuco
- El Paso County (TX)
- Anthony
(30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
For an expanded list of the communities that are closest to Dona Ana, see our County-by-County Page for Dona Ana.
Cemeteries Near Dona Ana ...
Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Dona Ana.
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 Dona Ana - one of the links might be able to help.
If not found below, our Cemetery List for Dona Ana covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.
The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Dona Ana, with the one closest to Dona Ana listed first.
- Community Cemetery
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Community Cemetery
- To give a relative sense of its location, the Community Cemetery is located in Las Cruces.
- Odd Fellow Cemetery
(5 miles [8 km] to the south)
- St. Joseph Cemetery
(5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
- Hillcrest Memorial Gardens Cemetery
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
- Dona Ana County Cemetery
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
- San Albino Cemetery
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for San Albino Cemetery
- The San Albino Cemetery has also been known as:
- Mesilla Valley Cemetery
- Tortugas Cemetery
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
- Organ Cemetery
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
- St. Josephs Cemetery
(19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
- Continue List (6 more) ...
- Old Berino Cemetery
(24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
- Rincon Cemetery
(24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
- Chamberino Cemetery
(25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chamberino Cemetery
- The Chamberino Cemetery has also been known as:
- San Luis Cemetery
- Rodey Cemetery
(25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
- Placitas Hill Cemetery
(28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
- Hatch Cemetery
(28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
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>
The Rand McNally Atlas shows that in 1895, Dona Ana had railroad service and no post office.
These communities are listed based on their distance from Dona Ana, with the one closest to Dona Ana listed first.
- Las Cruces
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
- Leasburg ‑ Historic
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
- Leasburg is located in Dona Ana County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Leasburg
- Mesilla
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
- Mesilla Park
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
- Organ ‑ Historic
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
- Organ is located in Dona Ana County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Organ
- Mesquite
(16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
- Tonuco
(17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
- Tonuco is located in Dona Ana County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tonuco
- Afton ‑ Historic
(23 miles [37 km] to the south)
- Afton is located in Dona Ana County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Afton
- Aden ‑ Historic
(24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
- Aden is located in Dona Ana County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Aden
- Rincon
(24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
- Rincon is located in Dona Ana County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rincon
- Lanark ‑ Historic
(28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
- Lanark is located in Dona Ana County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lanark
- Hatch
(28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
- Anthony
(29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
We've also created an expanded list of communities that existed in the 1890's and were located in the area around Dona Ana. See our List of 1890's Communities around Dona Ana.
Newspapers Published in Dona Ana ...
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 70 newspapers that have been published in the area around Dona Ana.
Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Dona Ana, there are papers which were published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Dona Ana.
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 Dona Ana:
- Websites specific to New Mexico
- Pages specific to Dona Ana County
- Genealogy information for nearby counties
- Cemetery Information and Directories for New Mexico
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 Dona Ana, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy. |
| <4> | Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or 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- Dona Ana) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'. |