RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of New Mexico >> San Miguel County >> San Juan >> Genealogy HelperIndex...

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 San Juan (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 San Juan. 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.

San Juan is located in San Miguel 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 San Miguel County: Guadalupe, Harding, Mora, Quay, Santa Fe & Torrance.

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

  • San Miguel County     (The home county of San Juan)
    • The following are listed by their distance from San Juan, with the one closest to San Juan listed first.
    • Villanueva
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
    • El Cerrito
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
      • El Cerrito is located in San Miguel County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for El Cerrito
    • Coruco
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
      • Coruco is located in San Miguel County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Coruco
    • San Miguel
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
      • San Miguel is located in San Miguel County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for San Miguel
    • Ribera
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
    • Chapelle
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
      • Chapelle is located in San Miguel County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chapelle
    • El Ancon
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
      • El Ancon is located in San Miguel County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for El Ancon
    • Serafina
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
    • Apache Springs
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
      • Apache Springs is located in San Miguel County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Apache Springs
    • Ilfeld
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Tecolote
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
      • Tecolote is located in San Miguel County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tecolote
    • Romero
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
      • Romero is located in San Miguel County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Romero
  • Guadalupe County
    • The following are listed by their distance from San Juan, with the one closest to San Juan listed first.
    • Dahlia
      (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
      • Dahlia is located in Guadalupe County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dahlia
    • Upper Anton Chico
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
      • Upper Anton Chico is located in Guadalupe County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Upper Anton Chico
    • Anton Chico
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
    • Dilia
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
      • Dilia is located in Guadalupe County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dilia
    • Colonias
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
      • Colonias is located in Guadalupe County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Colonias
  • Torrance County

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

Cemeteries Near San Juan ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of San Juan.

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 San Juan - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

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

  • Villanueva
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
  • San Miguel
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
    • San Miguel is located in San Miguel County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for San Miguel
  • Blanchard
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
    • Blanchard is located in San Miguel County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Blanchard
  • Bernal
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
    • Bernal is located in San Miguel County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bernal
  • Sands
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
    • Sands is located in San Miguel County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sands
  • Tecolote
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
    • Tecolote is located in San Miguel County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tecolote
  • Romero
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
    • Romero is located in San Miguel County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Romero
  • Rowe
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)

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

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we begin with 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 San Juan:

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>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- San Juan) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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 San Juan, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.