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Our Genealogy Helper

Introduction ...

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

We've added Monista to our Gazetteer with the hope that we can develop more information. If you can help us with Monista, 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 Monista (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 Monista. 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 northwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors and hospitals were in the next county to the west. 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 west 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 Monista is historic, it would have been located within present day Otero 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 Otero County: Chaves, Dona Ana, Eddy, Lincoln, Sierra, Culberson (TX) & Hudspeth (TX).

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

  • Otero County     (The home county of Monista)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Monista, with the one closest to Monista listed first.
    • Boles Acres
      (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Boles Acres
      • Boles Acres is located in Otero County
    • Alamogordo
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Alamogordo have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Alamogordo
      • Alamogordo is located in Otero County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 32,126 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Alamogordo <3>
    • La Luz
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Sunspot
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sunspot
      • Sunspot is located in Otero County
    • High Rolls
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for High Rolls
      • High Rolls is located in Otero County
    • Tularosa
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
    • Mountain Park
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mountain Park
      • Mountain Park is located in Otero County
    • Cloudcroft
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Bent
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Timberon
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Timberon have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Timberon
      • Timberon is located in Otero County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Timberon <3>
    • Mescalero
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Sacramento
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)

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

Newspapers Published in Monista ...

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 41 newspapers that have been published in the area around Monista.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Monista, 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 Monista.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first visit 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 Monista:

Cemeteries Near Monista ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Monista.

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

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

  • Monte Vista Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
  • Immaculate Conception Catholic Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
  • White Dove of the Desert Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Our Lady of the Light Catholic Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
  • La Luz Community Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Fairview Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
  • Sacred Heart Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
    • The Sacred Heart Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Tularosa Catholic Cemetery
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Sacred Heart Cemetery
  • Marcia Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Marcia Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Marcia Cemetery
  • Bass Cemetery
    (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Bass Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Bass Cemetery
  • Walters Cemetery
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Walters Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Walters Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #38504 <5>
  • James Canyon Cemetery
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
  • Mescalero Indian Cemetery
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Continue List   (5 more) ...
    • Blazer Cemetery
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Blazers Cemetery
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Blazers Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Blazers Cemetery
    • Carner Cemetery
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)

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

The official website for Otero County: www.co.otero.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 Monista, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<2>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.
<3>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<4>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- Monista) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Monista. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 32.8348, Longitude: -106.0742       In this case, the coordinates for Monista 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.




 

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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.

If you've found an error or have additional information that you would like to share, please don't hesitate to write: Click here to contact us.

This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024