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 McDermott Wells (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 McDermott Wells. 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 McDermott Wells ...

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.

Although we can't give a definitive list, hopefully the following will give you a feel for the variations that might have occurred.

For example, a typical abbreviation for McDermott Wells: McDermott Wls.

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 northeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most 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.

McDermott Wells is located in Chaves 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 Chaves County: DeBaca, Eddy, Lea, Lincoln, Otero & Roosevelt.

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

• Chaves County     (The home county of McDermott Wells)
  • Roswell
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Roswell
    • Roswell is located in Chaves County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 47,596 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Roswell <1>

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

Newspapers Published in McDermott Wells ...

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 25 newspapers that have been published in the area around McDermott Wells.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of McDermott Wells, there are papers which were published within 26 miles [41.8 km]<2>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for McDermott Wells.

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 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 McDermott Wells:

• Websites specific to New Mexico
  • Jump to Cyndi's List
  • Jump to Family Search
  • Jump to Genealogy Trails
  • Website for the State Records Center and Archives

• Pages specific to Chaves County
  • Jump to Cyndi's List
  • Jump to Family Search
  • Jump to Genealogy Trails

• Genealogy information for nearby counties

• Cemetery Information and Directories for New Mexico
  • Cemetery Junction: Cemeteries of New Mexico
  • Cyndi's List
  • Cemeteries of New Mexico
  • Cemeteries of Chaves County
  • FamilySearch.org: Cemeteries of New Mexico
  • Find-A-Grave: Home Page
  • Interment.net
  • Cemeteries of New Mexico
  • Cemeteries of Chaves County

Cemeteries Near McDermott Wells ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of McDermott Wells.

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

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

• Eden Valley Cemetery
  (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Eden Valley Cemetery
• Frazier Cemetery
  (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Frazier Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Frazier Cemetery
• St. Marys Cemetery
  (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Marys Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Marys Cemetery
  • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #38390 <4>
• Memory Lawn Memorial Park
  (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
  • The Memory Lawn Memorial Park has also been known as:
  • Memory Lawn Cemetery
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Memory Lawn Memorial Park
  • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #1963097 <4>
• Boaz Cemetery
  (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Boaz Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Boaz Cemetery
• Engleville Cemetery
  (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Engleville Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Engleville Cemetery
• South Park Cemetery
  (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
  • To give a relative sense of its location, the South Park Cemetery is located outside and to the south of Roswell.
  • The South Park Cemetery has also been known as:
  • South Hill Cemetery
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the South Park Cemetery
  • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #38461 <4>

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

• Roswell
  (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Roswell
  • Roswell is located in Chaves County
  • Population from the 2020 Census: 47,596 people
  • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Roswell <1>

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

Off-the-Road Links ...

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

The official website for Chaves County: www.co.chaves.nm.us/

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