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Our Genealogy Helper

Introduction ...

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

We've added La Belle to our Gazetteer with the hope that we can develop more information. If you can help us with La Belle, 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 La Belle (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 La Belle. 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 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 La Belle is historic, it would have been located within present day Taos 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 Taos County: Conejos (CO), Costilla (CO), Colfax, Mora & Rio Arriba.

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

  • Taos County     (The home county of La Belle)
    • The following are listed by their distance from La Belle, with the one closest to La Belle listed first.
    • Red River
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Taos Ski Valley
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Taos Ski Valley have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Taos Ski Valley
      • Taos Ski Valley is located in Taos County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 76 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Taos Ski Valley <2>
    • Amalia
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Amalia
      • Amalia is located in Taos County
    • Ventero
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ventero
      • Ventero is located in Taos County
    • Buena Vista
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
    • Questa
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Questa have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Questa
      • Questa is located in Taos County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,741 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Questa <2>
    • Cerro
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
    • Costilla
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Lama
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lama
      • Lama is located in Taos County
    • Kiowa Village
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Kiowa Village have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kiowa Village
      • Kiowa Village is located in Taos County
    • Arroyo Seco
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
    • San Cristobal
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Colfax County
    • The following are listed by their distance from La Belle, with the one closest to La Belle listed first.
    • Virginia City ‑ Historic
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Virginia City have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Virginia City
      • Virginia City is located in Colfax County
    • Eagle Nest
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Eagle Nest have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eagle Nest
      • Eagle Nest is located in Colfax County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 251 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Eagle Nest <2>
    • Idlewild
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Idlewild
      • Idlewild is located in Colfax County
    • Lakeview Pines
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lakeview Pines
      • Lakeview Pines is located in Colfax County
    • Ute Park
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Angel Fire
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
    • Cimarron
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Lauretta ‑ Historic
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Lauretta. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<4>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lauretta
      • Lauretta is located in Colfax County
    • Dawson ‑ Historic
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dawson
      • Dawson is located in Colfax County
  • Costilla County (CO)
    • The following are listed by their distance from La Belle, with the one closest to La Belle listed first.
    • Garcia
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Garcia have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Garcia
      • Garcia is located in Costilla County (CO)
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Garcia <2>
    • Jaroso
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Jaroso have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jaroso
      • Jaroso is located in Costilla County (CO)
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Jaroso <2>
    • Chama
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Chama have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chama
      • Chama is located in Costilla County (CO)
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Chama <2>
    • San Pablo
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for San Pablo have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for San Pablo
      • San Pablo is located in Costilla County (CO)
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for San Pablo <2>
    • San Luis
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for San Luis have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for San Luis
      • San Luis is located in Costilla County (CO)
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 692 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for San Luis <2>

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of La Belle ...

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 52 newspapers that have been published in the area around La Belle.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of La Belle. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of La Belle and those printed in the larger area surrounding La Belle.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<5> of La Belle.

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 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 La Belle:

Cemeteries Near La Belle ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of La Belle.

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 La Belle covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

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

  • Red River Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
  • Veterans Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Veterans Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Veterans Cemetery
  • Jackson Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Jackson Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Jackson Cemetery
  • Latir Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Latir Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Latir Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #38177 <6>
  • St. Anthony Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
  • El Cerro Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the El Cerro Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the El Cerro Cemetery
  • Chapel of Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
  • Sacred Heart Catholic Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
  • Sunshine Valley Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
  • Garcia Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Rael Cemetery
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Rael Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Rael Cemetery
  • Jaroso Cemetery
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
    • The Jaroso Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Mountain View Cemetery
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Jaroso Cemetery
  • Continue List   (16 more) ...
    • Tercio Cemetery
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Colonias Cemetery
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Colonias Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Colonias Cemetery
    • Cimmarron Cemetery
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
      • To give a relative sense of its location, the Cimmarron Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located outside and to the southwest of Cimarron.
      • The Cimmarron Cemetery has also been known as:
      • Mountain View Cemetery
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Cimmarron Cemetery
      • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #38005 <6>

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

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

  • Elizabethtown ‑ Historic
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Elizabethtown have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elizabethtown
    • Elizabethtown is located in Colfax County
  • Questa
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Questa have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Questa
    • Questa is located in Taos County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,741 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Questa <2>
  • Cerro
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
  • Costilla
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
  • Arroyo Seco
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Arroyo Hondo
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Cimarron
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Taos
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)

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

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 La Belle, 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>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.
<5>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- La Belle) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in La Belle. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 36.7628, Longitude: -105.3006       In this case, the coordinates for La Belle have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>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.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024