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A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
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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 Padro (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 Padro. 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 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 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 Padro is located in Taos 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 Taos County: Conejos (CO), Costilla (CO), Colfax, Mora & Rio Arriba.

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

  • Taos County     (The home county of El Padro)
    • The following are listed by their distance from El Padro, with the one closest to El Padro listed first.
    • El Prado
      (Less than 2 miles to the north)
    • Taos
      (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Canon
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
      • Canon is located in Taos County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Canon
    • Ranchito
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Taos Pueblo
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
      • Taos Pueblo is located in Taos County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Taos Pueblo
    • Arroyo Seco
      (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Ranchos de Taos
      (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Talpa
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
      • Talpa is located in Taos County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Talpa
    • Valdez
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • Shady Brook
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Shady Brook is located in Taos County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shady Brook
    • Arroyo Hondo
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Kiowa Village
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
      • Kiowa Village is located in Taos County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kiowa Village
  • Colfax County
    • The following are listed by their distance from El Padro, with the one closest to El Padro listed first.
    • Lakeview Pines
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
      • Lakeview Pines is located in Colfax County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lakeview Pines
    • Angel Fire
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
    • Idlewild
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
      • Idlewild is located in Colfax County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Idlewild
    • Eagle Nest
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Virginia City ‑ Historic
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
      • Virginia City is located in Colfax County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Virginia City
    • Ute Park
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
  • Mora County
    • The following are listed by their distance from El Padro, with the one closest to El Padro listed first.
    • Chacon
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Guadalupita
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Holman
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
    • Halls Peak ‑ Historic
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Halls Peak is located in Mora County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Halls Peak
  • Rio Arriba County
    • The following are listed by their distance from El Padro, with the one closest to El Padro listed first.
    • Apodaca
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
      • Apodaca is located in Rio Arriba County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Apodaca
    • Rinconada
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
      • Rinconada is located in Rio Arriba County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rinconada
    • Dixon
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
    • Petaca
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
    • Embudo
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
    • LaMadera
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
      • LaMadera is located in Rio Arriba County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for LaMadera
    • Velarde
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Truchas
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Vallecitos
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)

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

Cemeteries Near El Padro ...

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

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

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

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

  • LaLoma Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
  • Kit Carson Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
  • Los Cruces Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
  • Sierra Vista Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
  • Campo Santo del Pueblo Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
  • Pacheco Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Graham Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
  • Colonias Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
  • Los Dolores Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
  • Canon Brethren Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
  • Penas Negras Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Hart Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
  • Continue List   (49 more) ...
    • Descariso Cemetery
      (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • St. Francis Cemetery
      (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Talpa Cemetery
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)

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.<2>

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

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

  • Taos
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
  • Arroyo Seco
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
  • Arroyo Hondo
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
  • Penasco
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
  • Questa
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
  • Barranca
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Barranca is located in Taos County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Barranca
  • Elizabethtown ‑ Historic
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Elizabethtown is located in Colfax County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elizabethtown
  • Servilleta
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
    • Servilleta is located in Taos County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Servilleta
  • Rinconada
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Rinconada is located in Rio Arriba County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rinconada
  • Cerro
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
  • Embudo
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Tres Piedras
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Continue List   (4 more) ...

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

Newspapers Published in El Padro ...

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 36 newspapers that have been published in the area around El Padro.

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

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 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 Padro:

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>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 Padro, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<3>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- El Padro) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.