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Our Genealogy Helper

Introduction ...

So far, we found very little information about Heaton. The little that we've found leads us believe that the community is historic.<1>

We've added Heaton to our Gazetteer with the hope that we can develop more information. If you can help us with Heaton, please Contact Us.

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 Heaton (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 Heaton. 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 northeast 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 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 east 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.

Although our information shows that the community of Heaton is historic, it would have been located within present day McKinley County.

To see how the shape of New Mexico's counties have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of McKinley County: Apache (AZ), Cibola, San Juan & Sandoval.

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

  • McKinley County     (The home county of Heaton)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Heaton, with the one closest to Heaton listed first.
    • Gallup
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gallup
      • Gallup is located in McKinley County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 21,253 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Gallup <2>
    • Yah-ta-hey
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Yah-ta-hey have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Yah-ta-hey
      • Yah-ta-hey is located in McKinley County
    • Rehoboth
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Navajo Wingate Village
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Navajo Wingate Village have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Navajo Wingate Village
      • Navajo Wingate Village is located in McKinley County
    • Rock Springs
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rock Springs
      • Rock Springs is located in McKinley County
    • Church Rock
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Red Rock
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Red Rock
      • Red Rock is located in McKinley County
    • Twin Lakes
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Twin Lakes have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Twin Lakes
      • Twin Lakes is located in McKinley County
    • Defiance
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Defiance
      • Defiance is located in McKinley County
    • Bread Springs
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bread Springs
      • Bread Springs is located in McKinley County
    • Fort Wingate
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Brimhall Nizhoni
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Brimhall Nizhoni have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brimhall Nizhoni
      • Brimhall Nizhoni is located in McKinley County
    • Mexican Springs
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mexican Springs
      • Mexican Springs is located in McKinley County
      • Mexican Springs has also been known as:
      • Nakai Beto
      • Nakai Bito
      • Nakaibeto
      • Nakaibito
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Mexican Springs <2>
  • Apache County (AZ)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Heaton, with the one closest to Heaton listed first.
    • Window Rock
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
    • Hunters Point
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hunters Point
      • Hunters Point is located in Apache County (AZ)
    • Fort Defiance
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Saint Michaels
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
    • Lupton
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Oak Springs
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oak Springs
      • Oak Springs is located in Apache County (AZ)

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

Newspapers Published in Heaton ...

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 45 newspapers that have been published in the area around Heaton.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Heaton, there are papers which were published within 20 miles [32.2 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Heaton.

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 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 Heaton:

Cemeteries Near Heaton ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Heaton.

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.

If you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our selection of Genealogy Websites (see below).

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

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

  • Hillcrest Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Sunset Memorial Gardens
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Gallup City Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Gallup City Cemetery is located 5 miles [8 km]<4> to the east of Gallup.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Gallup City Cemetery
  • Pinehaven Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
  • Torreon Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for the Torreon Cemetery. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<6>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Torreon Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #38487 <5>
  • McGaffey Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the McGaffey Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the McGaffey Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #38219 <5>
  • Lone Pine Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
  • Ft. Defiance Veterans Memorial Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Bowman Memorial Park
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for the Bowman Memorial Park. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<6>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Bowman Memorial Park
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #56978 <5>

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.

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

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

The official website for McKinley County: www.co.mckinley.nm.us/

The official website for State of New Mexico: www.newmexico.gov/

Footnotes ...

<1>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 Heaton, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<3>The location has been supplied by the Geographic Names Information System - which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While these values should be definitive, we found that accuracy can vary and you should double-check the location if accuracy is required.
<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 drawn from Point A (ie- Heaton) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Heaton. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 35.5778, Longitude: -108.7179       In this case, the coordinates for Heaton have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>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.
<6>An 'estimated' location is one where we have been given GPS coordinates, but are unable to verify the accuracy of those coordinates. That said, we have some confidence that we have placed the marker near the actual location. A typical reason for being unable to verify a location is that it might be on private property or maybe historic and gone without an obvious trace.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024