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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 Rio del Oro (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 del Oro. 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 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.

Rio del Oro 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 del Oro. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Rio del Oro:

  • Valencia County     (The home county of Rio del Oro)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Rio del Oro, with the one closest to Rio del Oro 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
      (5 miles [8 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 <1>
    • 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 del Oro, with the one closest to Rio del Oro listed first.
    • Isleta Pueblo
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
      • Isleta Pueblo is located in Bernalillo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Isleta Pueblo
    • Isleta
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
    • Barr
      (16 miles [25.7 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
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
      • Old Town is located in Bernalillo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Old Town
    • Albuquerque
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
    • Mesa Village
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
      • Mesa Village is located in Bernalillo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mesa Village
    • 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
    • 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
    • Hoffmantown
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
      • Hoffmantown is located in Bernalillo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hoffmantown
    • Monticello
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Socorro County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Rio del Oro, with the one closest to Rio del Oro 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 del Oro, with the one closest to Rio del Oro listed first.
    • Manzano
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
      • Manzano is located in Torrance County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Manzano
    • Tajique
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
    • Torreon
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
      • Torreon is located in Torrance County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Torreon
    • 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 del Oro, see our County-by-County Page for Rio del Oro.

Cemeteries Near Rio del Oro ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Rio del Oro.

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 del Oro - one of the links might be able to help.

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Rio del Oro, with the one closest to Rio del Oro 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.<3>

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

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

  • Tome
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
  • Los Lunas
    (5 miles [8 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 <1>
  • Peralta
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
  • Isleta
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
  • Barr
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
    • Barr is located in Bernalillo County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Barr
  • 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
  • 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
    (25 miles [40.2 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 del Oro. See our List of 1890's Communities around Rio del Oro.

Newspapers Published in Rio del Oro ...

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 del Oro.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Rio del Oro, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Rio del Oro.

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 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 del Oro:

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 Rio del Oro, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<4>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or 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- Rio del Oro) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.