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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 Four Points (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 Four Points. 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.

Name Variations for Four Points ...

When searching records, keep in mind that names and their spelling can change over time. Our sources include documents like maps, railroad schedules, Travel, Express and Shipping Guides. Many of these documents date from the 1800's and it's common to find spelling differences.

For example, a typical abbreviation for Four Points: Four Pts.

You might be interested in other communities that are also named Four Points. More information can be found on our Tidbits & Trivia Page for Four Points.

If you have information about these names (such as the reason for the change, date of change, the origin of the name), please Contact Us.

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 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.

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

  • Dona Ana County     (The home county of Four Points)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Four Points, with the one closest to Four Points listed first.
    • Mesilla
      (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
    • Mesilla Park
      (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
    • University Park
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
      • University Park is located in Dona Ana County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for University Park
    • Las Cruces
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Fairacres
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • San Ysidro
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
      • San Ysidro is located in Dona Ana County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for San Ysidro
    • Dona Ana
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
    • Mesquite
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Spaceport City
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Spaceport City is located in Dona Ana County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spaceport City
    • La Mesa
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Hill
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
      • Hill is located in Dona Ana County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hill
    • Vado
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Leasburg ‑ Historic
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Leasburg is located in Dona Ana County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Leasburg
  • El Paso County (TX)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Four Points, with the one closest to Four Points listed first.
    • Anthony
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
      • Anthony is located in El Paso County (TX)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Anthony
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 5,257 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Anthony <1>
    • Vinton
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
      • Vinton is located in El Paso County (TX)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Vinton
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,168 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Vinton <1>
    • Westway
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
      • Westway is located in El Paso County (TX)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Westway
    • Canutillo
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Prado Verde
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
      • Prado Verde is located in El Paso County (TX)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Prado Verde

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

Cemeteries Near Four Points ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Four Points.

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 Four Points - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • San Albino Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for San Albino Cemetery
    • The San Albino Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Mesilla Valley Cemetery
  • Tortugas Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
  • Dona Ana County Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
  • St. Joseph Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
  • Odd Fellow Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
  • Community Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Community Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Community Cemetery is located in Las Cruces.
  • Hillcrest Memorial Gardens Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
  • St. Josephs Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Organ Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Old Berino Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Chamberino Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chamberino Cemetery
    • The Chamberino Cemetery has also been known as:
    • San Luis Cemetery
  • Canutillo Cemetery
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)

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 Four Points in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Four Points.

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

  • Mesilla
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
  • Mesilla Park
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
  • Las Cruces
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
  • Dona Ana
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
  • Mesquite
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
  • Leasburg ‑ Historic
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Leasburg is located in Dona Ana County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Leasburg
  • Organ ‑ Historic
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Organ is located in Dona Ana County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Organ
  • Afton ‑ Historic
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Afton is located in Dona Ana County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Afton
  • Lanark ‑ Historic
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
    • Lanark is located in Dona Ana County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lanark
  • Aden ‑ Historic
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
    • Aden is located in Dona Ana County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Aden
  • Anthony
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
  • Tonuco
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Tonuco is located in Dona Ana County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tonuco
  • Canutillo
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
  • Strauss ‑ Historic
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
    • Strauss is located in Dona Ana County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Strauss

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

Newspapers Published in Four Points ...

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 56 newspapers that have been published in the area around Four Points.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Four Points, there are papers which were published within 21 miles [33.8 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Four Points.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first visit 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 Four Points:

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 Four Points, 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' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Four Points) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.