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A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
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Our Genealogy Helper

Introduction ...

Although we found mention of Rio Communities North during our research, we have little information about it.<1> Given the context of how Rio Communities North was mentioned, we believe that it was a community rather than a locale or some type of landmark. We have done a cursory search and if it was a community, we haven't been able to find any evidence that it still exists..


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 Rio Communities North (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 Rio Communities North. 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 southeast 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 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 east 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.

Rio Communities North is located in Valencia 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 Valencia County: Bernalillo, Cibola, Socorro & Torrance.

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

  • Valencia County     (The home county of Rio Communities North)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Rio Communities North, with the one closest to Rio Communities North listed first.
    • Tome
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Valencia
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
      • Valencia is located in Valencia County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Valencia
    • Los Lunas
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Belen
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Belen is located in Valencia County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Belen
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 7,496 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Belen <2>
    • Rio Communities
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Peralta
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • Bosque Farms
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
    • Meadow Lake
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
      • Meadow Lake is located in Valencia County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Meadow Lake
    • Jarales
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Casa Colorada
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
      • Casa Colorada is located in Valencia County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Casa Colorada
    • Bosque
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Bernalillo County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Rio Communities North, with the one closest to Rio Communities North listed first.
    • Isleta Pueblo
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
      • Isleta Pueblo is located in Bernalillo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Isleta Pueblo
    • Isleta
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
    • Barr
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
      • Barr is located in Bernalillo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Barr
    • South Valley
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
      • South Valley is located in Bernalillo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Valley
    • Martinez Town
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
      • Martinez Town is located in Bernalillo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Martinez Town
    • Old Town
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
      • Old Town is located in Bernalillo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Old Town
    • Canada Village
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Canada Village is located in Bernalillo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Canada Village
    • Albuquerque
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
    • Mesa Village
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
      • Mesa Village is located in Bernalillo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mesa Village
    • Carnuel
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
      • Carnuel is located in Bernalillo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Carnuel
    • Ponderosa Pine
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
      • Ponderosa Pine is located in Bernalillo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ponderosa Pine
    • Chilili
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
      • Chilili is located in Bernalillo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chilili
  • Socorro County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Rio Communities North, with the one closest to Rio Communities North listed first.
    • Veguita
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
    • Contreras
      (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
      • Contreras is located in Socorro County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Contreras
    • Las Nutrias
      (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
      • Las Nutrias is located in Socorro County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Las Nutrias
    • Abeytas
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
      • Abeytas is located in Socorro County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Abeytas
    • La Joya
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
      • La Joya is located in Socorro County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for La Joya
  • Torrance County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Rio Communities North, with the one closest to Rio Communities North listed first.
    • Manzano
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
      • Manzano is located in Torrance County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Manzano
    • Torreon
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
      • Torreon is located in Torrance County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Torreon
    • Tajique
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
    • Abo ‑ Historic
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
      • Abo is located in Torrance County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Abo
    • Mountainair
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)

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

Cemeteries Near Rio Communities North ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Rio Communities North.

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 Rio Communities North - one of the links might be able to help.

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Rio Communities North, with the one closest to Rio Communities North 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 Rio Communities North in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Rio Communities North.

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

  • Tome
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
  • Belen
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Belen is located in Valencia County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Belen
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 7,496 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Belen <2>
  • Los Lunas
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Peralta
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
  • Isleta
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
  • Sabinal
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
    • Sabinal is located in Socorro County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sabinal
  • Pajarito ‑ Historic
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
    • Pajarito is located in Bernalillo County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pajarito
  • Barr
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
    • Barr is located in Bernalillo County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Barr
  • Rio Puerco
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
    • Rio Puerco is located in Valencia County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rio Puerco
  • Albuquerque
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
  • La Joya
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
    • La Joya is located in Socorro County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for La Joya

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

Newspapers Published in Rio Communities North ...

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 171 newspapers that have been published in the area around Rio Communities North.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Rio Communities North, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<5>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Rio Communities North.

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 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 Rio Communities North:

Footnotes ...

<1>If we encounter the name of what might be a community, our methodology is to add that name to our Gazetteer. For example, we might find a sentence like "He went north past Rio Communities North and then turned east". While Rio Communities North could be some kind of landmark, we think that it's more likely to be a community. We've added Rio Communities North as a placeholder with the hope that we'll be able to add more information in the future.

Just as a reminder: Our definition of a community is rather broad and includes those places (or areas) where several families lived and had a name which identified that place. For example, you might hear somebody say that they are going over to Mile's to see Pete ... Mile's is just a gas station and a couple of homes at the crossroads. While it might not be on the map, everybody in the area knows it by that name.

Places of interest include buildings at a crossroad, several families clustered in a hollow or maybe the location of a way station. It also includes places like mines, lumber camps, ferry crossings, etc. The community might still exist, is now gone or only existed for just a short period of time.

Also keep in mind that Rio Communities North could have been on the original document by mistake, misspelled, the original/alternate name of a community that we've listed elsewhere or was placed in the wrong county. Sometimes a post office or train station would have a different name than the community where it's located, so two names might be referring to the same community - we're working to straighten it all out.

Since confusion between counties is common, we searched and weren't able to find another New Mexico community named Rio Communities North.
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<3>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.
<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 Rio Communities North, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<5>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Rio Communities North) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.