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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 Radium Springs (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 Radium Springs. 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 Radium Springs ...

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 occur.

For example, a typical abbreviation for Radium Springs: Radium Spgs. (or less commonly used: Radium Spngs. or Radium Sprngs.)

You might be interested in other communities that are also named Radium Springs. More information can be found on our Tidbits & Trivia Page for Radium Springs.

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 and doctors 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.

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

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

  • Dona Ana County     (The home county of Radium Springs)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Radium Springs, with the one closest to Radium Springs listed first.
    • Leasburg ‑ Historic
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
      • Leasburg is located in Dona Ana County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Leasburg
    • Hill
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Hill is located in Dona Ana County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hill
    • Tonuco
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Tonuco is located in Dona Ana County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tonuco
    • Dona Ana
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
    • San Ysidro
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
      • San Ysidro is located in Dona Ana County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for San Ysidro
    • Rincon
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Rincon is located in Dona Ana County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rincon
    • Fairacres
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
    • Las Cruces
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Spaceport City
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Spaceport City is located in Dona Ana County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spaceport City
    • Mesilla
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Hatch
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
      • Hatch is located in Dona Ana County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hatch
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,678 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Hatch <1>
    • Mesilla Park
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
    • University Park
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
      • University Park is located in Dona Ana County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for University Park
  • Luna County
    • Nutt ‑ Historic
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
      • Nutt is located in Luna County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nutt

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

Cemeteries Near Radium Springs ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Radium Springs.

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 Radium Springs - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • Hillcrest Memorial Gardens Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
  • Community Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Community Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Community Cemetery is located in Las Cruces.
  • Rincon Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Odd Fellow Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
  • St. Joseph Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Rodey Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
  • Dona Ana County Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
  • San Albino Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for San Albino Cemetery
    • The San Albino Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Mesilla Valley Cemetery
  • Placitas Hill Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
  • Hatch Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
  • Tortugas Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
  • Organ Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
  • St. Josephs Cemetery
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)

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.<3>

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

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

  • Leasburg ‑ Historic
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Leasburg is located in Dona Ana County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Leasburg
  • Tonuco
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Tonuco is located in Dona Ana County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tonuco
  • Dona Ana
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Las Cruces
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Rincon
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Rincon is located in Dona Ana County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rincon
  • Mesilla
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
  • Mesilla Park
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
  • Hatch
    (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
    • Hatch is located in Dona Ana County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hatch
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,678 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Hatch <1>
  • Organ ‑ Historic
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
    • Organ is located in Dona Ana County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Organ
  • Aden ‑ Historic
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Aden is located in Dona Ana County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Aden
  • Mesquite
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
  • Afton ‑ Historic
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
    • Afton is located in Dona Ana County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Afton

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

Newspapers Published in Radium Springs ...

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 67 newspapers that have been published in the area around Radium Springs.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Radium Springs, there are papers which were published within 18 miles [29 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Radium Springs.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first turn to the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These websites either 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 Radium Springs:

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>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 Radium Springs, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<4>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Radium Springs) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.