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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 Rito (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 Rito. 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 and doctors 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.

El Rito 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 Rito. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to El Rito:

  • Taos County     (The home county of El Rito)
    • The following are listed by their distance from El Rito, with the one closest to El Rito listed first.
    • Buena Vista
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Cerro
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Questa
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
    • Lama
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
      • Lama is located in Taos County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lama
    • Red River
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Amalia
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Amalia is located in Taos County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Amalia
    • Costilla
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
    • San Cristobal
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
    • Ventero
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Ventero is located in Taos County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ventero
    • Kiowa Village
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
      • Kiowa Village is located in Taos County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kiowa Village
    • Taos Ski Valley
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Valdez
      (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
    • Arroyo Hondo
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
  • Colfax County
    • The following are listed by their distance from El Rito, with the one closest to El Rito listed first.
    • Idlewild
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
      • Idlewild is located in Colfax County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Idlewild
    • Virginia City ‑ Historic
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
      • Virginia City is located in Colfax County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Virginia City
    • Eagle Nest
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Lakeview Pines
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
      • Lakeview Pines is located in Colfax County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lakeview Pines
    • Ute Park
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Conejos County (CO)
    • The following are listed by their distance from El Rito, with the one closest to El Rito listed first.
    • Ortiz
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Ortiz is located in Conejos County (CO)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ortiz
    • Antonito
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Costilla County (CO)
    • The following are listed by their distance from El Rito, with the one closest to El Rito listed first.
    • Garcia
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
    • Jaroso
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
    • San Pablo
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
    • Chama
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
    • San Acacio
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
    • San Luis
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)

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

Cemeteries Near El Rito ...

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

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

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

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

  • Latir Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
  • El Cerro Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Chapel of Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
  • St. Anthony Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
  • Veterans Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
  • Sunshine Valley Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Red River Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Sacred Heart Catholic Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
  • Garcia Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
  • Jaroso Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jaroso Cemetery
    • The Jaroso Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Mountain View Cemetery
  • Rael Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
  • Colonias Cemetery
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
  • Continue List   (24 more) ...
    • LaLoma Cemetery
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
    • Campo Santo del Pueblo Cemetery
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
    • Sierra Vista Cemetery
      (26 miles [41.8 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.<3>

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

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

  • Cerro
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Questa
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
  • Costilla
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
  • Arroyo Hondo
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
  • Arroyo Seco
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
  • Elizabethtown ‑ Historic
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Elizabethtown is located in Colfax County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elizabethtown
  • No Agua
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
    • No Agua is located in Taos County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for No Agua
  • Tres Piedras
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
  • Servilleta
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Servilleta is located in Taos County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Servilleta
  • Taos
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
  • San Luis
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
  • Ortiz
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Ortiz is located in Conejos County (CO)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ortiz

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

Newspapers Published in El Rito ...

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 44 newspapers that have been published in the area around El Rito.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of El Rito, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for El Rito.

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 El Rito:

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 El Rito, 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- El Rito) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.