Our Genealogy Helper

Introduction ...

So far, we found very little information about South Spring. The little that we've found leads us believe that the community is historic.<1>

We've added South Spring to our Gazetteer with the hope that we can develop more information. If you can help us with South Spring, please Contact Us.

---

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 South Spring (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 South Spring. 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 South Spring ...

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 have occurred.

For example, a typical abbreviation for South Spring: S. Spg. (or less commonly used: S. Spng. or S. Sprng.)

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 southwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors were in the next county to the west. 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 west 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.

Although our information shows that the community of South Spring is historic, it would have been located within present day Chaves County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Chaves County: DeBaca, Eddy, Lea, Lincoln, Otero & Roosevelt.

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

• Chaves County     (The home county of South Spring)
  • The following are listed by their distance from South Spring, with the one closest to South Spring listed first.
  • Roswell
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Roswell
    • Roswell is located in Chaves County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 47,596 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Roswell <2>
  • Dexter
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Dexter have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dexter
    • Dexter is located in Chaves County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,244 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Dexter <2>
  • Hagerman
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hagerman
    • Hagerman is located in Chaves County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,226 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Hagerman <2>
  • Lake Arthur
    (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lake Arthur
    • Lake Arthur is located in Chaves County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 422 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Lake Arthur <2>

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

Cemeteries Near South Spring ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of South Spring.

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.

If you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our selection of Genealogy Websites (see below).

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

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

• South Park Cemetery
  (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the South Park Cemetery
  • To give a relative sense of its location, the South Park Cemetery is located outside and to the south of Roswell.
  • The South Park Cemetery has also been known as:
  • South Hill Cemetery
  • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #38461 <4>
• Memory Lawn Memorial Park
  (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Memory Lawn Memorial Park
  • The Memory Lawn Memorial Park has also been known as:
  • Memory Lawn Cemetery
  • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #1963097 <4>
• St. Marys Cemetery
  (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Marys Cemetery
  • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Marys Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #38390 <4>
• Hagerman Cemetery
  (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Hagerman Cemetery
  • To give a relative sense of its location, the Hagerman Cemetery is located outside and to the west of Hagerman.
  • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #38102 <4>
• Hagerman Masonic Cemetery
  (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Hagerman Masonic Cemetery
  • To give a relative sense of its location, the Hagerman Masonic Cemetery is located outside and to the west of Hagerman.
  • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2336162 <4>
• Acme Cemetery
  (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Acme Cemetery
  • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for the Acme Cemetery. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<5>
  • To give a relative sense of its location, the Acme Cemetery is located 17 miles [27.4 km]<6> to the southwest of Roswell.
  • The Acme Cemetery has also been known as:
  • Frazier Cemetery
  • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #38076 <4>
• Eden Valley Cemetery
  (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Eden Valley Cemetery
  • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for the Eden Valley Cemetery. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<5>
  • To give a relative sense of its location, the Eden Valley Cemetery is located 17 miles [27.4 km]<6> to the south of Roswell.
  • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #38036 <4>
• Lake Arthur Cemetery
  (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Lake Arthur Cemetery
  • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #38173 <4>

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.

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

• Roswell
  (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
  • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Roswell
  • Roswell is located in Chaves County
  • Population from the 2020 Census: 47,596 people
  • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Roswell <2>

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

Newspapers Published in South Spring ...

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 34 newspapers that have been published in the area around South Spring.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of South Spring, there are papers which were published within 23 miles [37 km]<6>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for South Spring.

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 helpful 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 South Spring:

• Websites specific to New Mexico
  • Jump to Cyndi's List
  • Jump to Family Search
  • Jump to Genealogy Trails
  • Website for the State Records Center and Archives

• Pages specific to Chaves County
  • Jump to Cyndi's List
  • Jump to Family Search
  • Jump to Genealogy Trails

• Genealogy information for nearby counties

• Cemetery Information and Directories for New Mexico
  • Cemetery Junction: Cemeteries of New Mexico
  • Cyndi's List
  • Cemeteries of New Mexico
  • Cemeteries of Chaves County
  • FamilySearch.org: Cemeteries of New Mexico
  • Find-A-Grave: Home Page
  • Interment.net
  • Cemeteries of New Mexico
  • Cemeteries of Chaves County

Off-the-Road Links ...

The official website for Chaves County: www.co.chaves.nm.us/

The official website for State of New Mexico: https://www.nm.gov/