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A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
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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 Pena Blanca (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 Pena Blanca. 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 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.

Pena Blanca is located in Sandoval County.

To see how the shape of New Mexico's counties may have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Sandoval County: Bernalillo, Cibola, Los Alamos, McKinley, Rio Arriba & Santa Fe.

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

  • Sandoval County     (The home county of Pena Blanca)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Pena Blanca, with the one closest to Pena Blanca listed first.
    • Sile
      (Less than 2 miles to the west)
      • Sile is located in Sandoval County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sile
    • Cochiti Pueblo
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
    • Domingo
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
      • Domingo is located in Sandoval County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Domingo
    • Kewa Pueblo
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • Cochiti Lake
      (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • San Felipe Pueblo
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
      • San Felipe Pueblo is located in Sandoval County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for San Felipe Pueblo
    • Algodones
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Diamond Tail Ranch
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
      • Diamond Tail Ranch is located in Sandoval County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Diamond Tail Ranch
    • Santa Ana Pueblo
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Placitas
      (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
    • Ponderosa
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
    • Bernalillo
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Jemez Pueblo
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
  • Bernalillo County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Pena Blanca, with the one closest to Pena Blanca listed first.
    • Sandia Park
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
    • Corrales
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Sandia Heights
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
      • Sandia Heights is located in Bernalillo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sandia Heights
    • Sandia Knolls
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
      • Sandia Knolls is located in Bernalillo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sandia Knolls
    • Rio Rancho
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Canoncito
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
      • Canoncito is located in Bernalillo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Canoncito
    • Alameda
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
  • Los Alamos County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Pena Blanca, with the one closest to Pena Blanca listed first.
    • White Rock
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
      • White Rock is located in Los Alamos County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for White Rock
    • Los Alamos
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
  • Rio Arriba County
    • Santa Clara Pueblo
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
      • Santa Clara Pueblo is located in Rio Arriba County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Santa Clara Pueblo
  • Santa Fe County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Pena Blanca, with the one closest to Pena Blanca listed first.
    • La Cienega
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
      • La Cienega is located in Santa Fe County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for La Cienega
    • Bonanza City ‑ Historic
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
      • Bonanza City is located in Santa Fe County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bonanza City
    • Los Cerrillos
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Los Cerrillos is located in Santa Fe County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Los Cerrillos
      • Los Cerrillos has also been known as:
      • Cerrillos
    • Madrid
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Agua Fria
      (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
    • Eldorado at Santa Fe
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
      • Eldorado at Santa Fe is located in Santa Fe County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eldorado at Santa Fe
    • Santa Fe
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
    • Seton Village
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
      • Seton Village is located in Santa Fe County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Seton Village
    • Golden ‑ Historic
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
      • Golden is located in Santa Fe County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Golden
    • San Pedro
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
      • San Pedro is located in Santa Fe County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for San Pedro
    • San Ildefonso Pueblo
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
      • San Ildefonso Pueblo is located in Santa Fe County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for San Ildefonso Pueblo
    • Galisteo
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Canada de los Alamos
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
      • Canada de los Alamos is located in Santa Fe County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Canada de los Alamos

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

Cemeteries Near Pena Blanca ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Pena Blanca.

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.

Although we don't have the information ourselves, if you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our list of websites on our Genealogy Helper Page for Pena Blanca - one of the links might be able to help.

If not found below, our Cemetery List for Pena Blanca covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Pena Blanca, with the one closest to Pena Blanca 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.<4>

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

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

  • Waldo ‑ Historic
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Waldo is located in Santa Fe County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Waldo
  • Los Cerrillos
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Los Cerrillos is located in Santa Fe County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Los Cerrillos
    • Los Cerrillos has also been known as:
    • Cerrillos
  • Ortiz ‑ Historic
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Ortiz is located in Santa Fe County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ortiz
  • Golden ‑ Historic
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
    • Golden is located in Santa Fe County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Golden
  • Santa Fe
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
  • San Pedro
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
    • San Pedro is located in Santa Fe County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for San Pedro
  • Lamy
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
  • Corrales
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Jacona
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Jacona is located in Santa Fe County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jacona
  • Pojoaque
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)

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

Newspapers Published in Pena Blanca ...

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 98 newspapers that have been published in the area around Pena Blanca.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Pena Blanca, there are papers which were published within 28 miles [45.1 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Pena Blanca.

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 Pena Blanca:

Footnotes ...

<1>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<2>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.
<3>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 drawn from Point A (ie- Pena Blanca) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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 Pena Blanca, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.