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The Commemorative Quarter for New Mexico





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 Magdalena (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 Magdalena. 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 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.

Magdalena is located in Socorro 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 Socorro County: Catron, Cibola, Lincoln, Sierra, Torrance & Valencia.

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

  • Socorro County     (The home county of Magdalena)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Magdalena, with the one closest to Magdalena listed first.
    • Kelly ‑ Historic
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Kelly have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kelly
      • Kelly is located in Socorro County
    • Lemitar
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
    • Limitar
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Limitar
      • Limitar is located in Socorro County
    • Polvadera
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
    • Socorro
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
    • Alamillo
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Alamillo
      • Alamillo is located in Socorro County
    • San Acacia
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
    • San Antonio
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for San Antonio
      • San Antonio is located in Socorro County
    • San Antonito
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Alamo
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Alamo have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Alamo
      • Alamo is located in Socorro County
    • La Joya
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for La Joya
      • La Joya is located in Socorro County

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Magdalena ...

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 39 newspapers that have been published in the area around Magdalena.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Magdalena. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Magdalena and those printed in the larger area surrounding Magdalena.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 21 miles [33.8 km]<3> of Magdalena.

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 helpful 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 Magdalena:

Cemeteries Near Magdalena ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Magdalena.

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

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

  • Medley Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Medley Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Medley Cemetery
  • San Miguel Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the San Miguel Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the San Miguel Cemetery
  • Escondido Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Escondido Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Escondido Cemetery
  • Lemitar Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Lemitar Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Lemitar Cemetery
  • Polvadera Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Polvadera Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Polvadera Cemetery
  • La Joya Cemetery
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the La Joya Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the La Joya Cemetery

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.<4>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Magdalena had a population of 210 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Magdalena had a population of 869 people.

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

  • Kelly ‑ Historic
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Kelly have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kelly
    • Kelly is located in Socorro County
  • Socorro
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
  • Alamillo
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Alamillo
    • Alamillo is located in Socorro County
  • San Acacia
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
  • San Antonio
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for San Antonio
    • San Antonio is located in Socorro County
  • La Joya
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for La Joya
    • La Joya is located in Socorro County

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

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

The official website for State of New Mexico: www.newmexico.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>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- Magdalena) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Magdalena. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 34.1145, Longitude: -107.2407    
<4>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 Magdalena, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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In closing, please keep in mind that we can not guarantee the accuracy or timeliness of the information on this website, so use with care. We encourage you to double-check the information that is critical to you.

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This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024