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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 El Dorado (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 El Dorado. 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 southeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors and hospitals were in the next county to the east. 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 east 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.

El Dorado is located in Santa Fe 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 Santa Fe County: Bernalillo, Los Alamos, Mora, Rio Arriba, San Miguel, Sandoval & Torrance.

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

  • Santa Fe County     (The home county of El Dorado)
    • The following are listed by their distance from El Dorado, with the one closest to El Dorado listed first.
    • Eldorado at Santa Fe
      (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
      • Eldorado at Santa Fe is located in Santa Fe County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eldorado at Santa Fe
    • Seton Village
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
      • Seton Village is located in Santa Fe County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Seton Village
    • Canada de los Alamos
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
      • Canada de los Alamos is located in Santa Fe County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Canada de los Alamos
    • Lamy
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Glorieta
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
    • Santa Fe
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
    • Agua Fria
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Galisteo
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
    • Bonanza City ‑ Historic
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
      • Bonanza City is located in Santa Fe County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bonanza City
    • La Cienega
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
      • La Cienega is located in Santa Fe County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for La Cienega
    • Los Cerrillos
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
      • Los Cerrillos is located in Santa Fe County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Los Cerrillos
      • Los Cerrillos has also been known as:
      • Cerrillos
    • Tesuque
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
  • Los Alamos County
    • White Rock
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
      • White Rock is located in Los Alamos County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for White Rock
  • San Miguel County
    • The following are listed by their distance from El Dorado, with the one closest to El Dorado listed first.
    • Pecos
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
      • Pecos is located in San Miguel County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pecos
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,313 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Pecos <1>
    • Rowe
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
    • Holy Ghost ‑ Historic
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
      • Holy Ghost is located in San Miguel County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Holy Ghost
    • Ilfeld
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
    • Cowles
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
      • Cowles is located in San Miguel County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cowles
    • El Ancon
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
      • El Ancon is located in San Miguel County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for El Ancon
    • Ribera
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
    • San Miguel
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
      • San Miguel is located in San Miguel County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for San Miguel
    • Coruco
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Coruco is located in San Miguel County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Coruco
  • Sandoval County
    • The following are listed by their distance from El Dorado, with the one closest to El Dorado listed first.
    • Domingo
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
      • Domingo is located in Sandoval County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Domingo
    • Pena Blanca
      (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
    • Cochiti Lake
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
    • Cochiti Pueblo
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
    • Kewa Pueblo
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
    • Sile
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
      • Sile is located in Sandoval County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sile
    • Diamond Tail Ranch
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Diamond Tail Ranch is located in Sandoval County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Diamond Tail Ranch
    • San Felipe Pueblo
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
      • San Felipe Pueblo is located in Sandoval County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for San Felipe Pueblo

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

Cemeteries Near El Dorado ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of El Dorado.

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 El Dorado - one of the links might be able to help.

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from El Dorado, with the one closest to El Dorado 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 El Dorado in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of El Dorado.

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

  • Lamy
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
  • Glorieta
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
  • Santa Fe
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
  • Los Cerrillos
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Los Cerrillos is located in Santa Fe County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Los Cerrillos
    • Los Cerrillos has also been known as:
    • Cerrillos
  • Pecos
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
    • Pecos is located in San Miguel County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pecos
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,313 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Pecos <1>
  • Waldo ‑ Historic
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Waldo is located in Santa Fe County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Waldo
  • Rowe
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
  • Ortiz ‑ Historic
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Ortiz is located in Santa Fe County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ortiz
  • Pojoaque
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
  • Golden ‑ Historic
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Golden is located in Santa Fe County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Golden
  • Jacona
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
    • Jacona is located in Santa Fe County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jacona
  • Sands
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
    • Sands is located in San Miguel County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sands
  • San Pedro
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
    • San Pedro is located in Santa Fe County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for San Pedro
  • San Miguel
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
    • San Miguel is located in San Miguel County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for San Miguel

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

Newspapers Published in El Dorado ...

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 92 newspapers that have been published in the area around El Dorado.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of El Dorado, there are papers which were published within 27 miles [43.5 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for El Dorado.

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 either 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 El Dorado:

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 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- El Dorado) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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 El Dorado, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.