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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 La Mesa (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 Mesa. 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.

La Mesa is located in Dona Ana 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 Dona Ana County: Luna, Otero, Sierra & El Paso (TX).

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

  • Dona Ana County     (The home county of La Mesa)
  • El Paso County (TX)
    • The following are listed by their distance from La Mesa, with the one closest to La Mesa listed first.
    • Anthony
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Anthony have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Anthony
      • Anthony is located in El Paso County (TX)
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 5,257 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Anthony <2>
    • Vinton
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Vinton have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Vinton
      • Vinton is located in El Paso County (TX)
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,168 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Vinton <2>
    • Westway
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Westway have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Westway
      • Westway is located in El Paso County (TX)
    • Prado Verde
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Prado Verde have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Prado Verde
      • Prado Verde is located in El Paso County (TX)
    • Canutillo
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Smelter Town
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Smelter Town have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Smelter Town
      • Smelter Town is located in El Paso County (TX)
    • Fort Bliss
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
    • El Paso
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)

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

Cemeteries Near La Mesa ...

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

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

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

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.<5>

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

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

  • Mesquite
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Mesquite have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mesquite
    • Mesquite is located in Dona Ana County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Mesquite <2>
  • Anthony
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Mesilla Park
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
  • Mesilla
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Lanark ‑ Historic
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Lanark. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lanark
    • Lanark is located in Dona Ana County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Lanark
    • From La Mesa to Lanark
  • Afton ‑ Historic
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Afton. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Afton
    • Afton is located in Dona Ana County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Afton
    • From La Mesa to Afton
  • Las Cruces
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
  • Canutillo
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Strauss ‑ Historic
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Strauss have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Strauss
    • Strauss is located in Dona Ana County
  • Dona Ana
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Dona Ana have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dona Ana
    • Dona Ana is located in Dona Ana County
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Dona Ana <2>
  • Montoya
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Montoya have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Montoya
    • Montoya is located in El Paso County (TX)
  • Organ ‑ Historic
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
  • Continue List   (4 more) ...
    • Courchesne
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Courchesne have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Courchesne
      • Courchesne is located in El Paso County (TX)
    • Aden ‑ Historic
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Aden have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Aden
      • Aden is located in Dona Ana County
    • Leasburg ‑ Historic
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Leasburg. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Leasburg
      • Leasburg is located in Dona Ana County
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Leasburg
      • From La Mesa to Leasburg

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

Newspapers Published in La Mesa ...

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 78 newspapers that have been published in the area around La Mesa.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of La Mesa, there are papers which were published within 28 miles [45.1 km]<6>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for La Mesa.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we start with the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These professional and volunteer 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 Mesa:

Unfortunately, we don't know of a website for La Mesa. If you can help, please contact us through our Feedback Page.

The official website for Dona Ana County: www.co.dona-ana.nm.us/

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

Footnotes ...

<1>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.
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<3>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.
<4>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.
<5>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 Mesa, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<6>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 from Point A (ie- La Mesa) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in La Mesa. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 32.1219, Longitude: -106.7079    









 

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This page was last modified/updated: 28 Apr 2025