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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 White Signal (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 White Signal. 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.

White Signal is located in Grant 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 Grant County: Greenlee (AZ), Catron, Hidalgo, Luna & Sierra.

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

  • Grant County     (The home county of White Signal)
    • The following are listed by their distance from White Signal, with the one closest to White Signal listed first.
    • Whitewater
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
      • Whitewater is located in Grant County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Whitewater
    • Silver City
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
    • Hurley
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Arenas Valley
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
      • Arenas Valley is located in Grant County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Arenas Valley
    • Bayard
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Central
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
      • Central is located in Grant County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Central
    • Santa Clara
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
      • Santa Clara is located in Grant County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Santa Clara
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,761 people
    • Little Walnut Village
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
    • Fort Bayard
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Cobre
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
      • Cobre is located in Grant County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cobre
    • Vanadium
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
      • Vanadium is located in Grant County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Vanadium
    • Pinos Altos ‑ Historic
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
      • Pinos Altos is located in Grant County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pinos Altos
  • Hidalgo County
    • The following are listed by their distance from White Signal, with the one closest to White Signal listed first.
    • Lordsburg
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Shakespeare ‑ Historic
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Shakespeare is located in Hidalgo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shakespeare
      • Former name for Shakespeare:
      • Ralston City
  • Luna County
    • Old Town
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
      • Old Town is located in Luna County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Old Town
  • San Miguel County

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

Cemeteries Near White Signal ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of White Signal.

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 White Signal - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • Gold Hill Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
  • Hurley Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Memory Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
  • Ft. Bayard National Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
  • Ft. Bayard / New Mexico Memorial Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
  • Vanadium Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
  • Redrock Cemetery
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
  • Cemetery #5
    (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
  • Hanover Cemetery
    (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
  • Continue List   (6 more) ...
    • Mountain View Cemetery
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Cemetery #4
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Shakespeare Cemetery
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Clark Cemetery
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Fierro Cemetery
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Georgetown Cemetery
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)

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 White Signal in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of White Signal.

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

  • Gold Hill ‑ Historic
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Gold Hill is located in Grant County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gold Hill
  • Whitewater
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
    • Whitewater is located in Grant County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Whitewater
  • Alhambra ‑ Historic
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Alhambra is located in Grant County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Alhambra
  • Silver City
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
  • Central
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Central is located in Grant County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Central
  • Fort Bayard
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
  • Pinos Altos ‑ Historic
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
    • Pinos Altos is located in Grant County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pinos Altos
  • Hanover
    (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
    • Hanover is located in Grant County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hanover
  • Separ
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
    • Separ is located in Grant County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Separ
  • Santa Rita ‑ Historic
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Santa Rita is located in Grant County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Santa Rita
  • Wilna
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
    • Wilna is located in Grant County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wilna

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

Newspapers Published in White Signal ...

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 33 newspapers that have been published in the area around White Signal.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of White Signal, there are papers which were published within 24 miles [38.6 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for White Signal.

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 White Signal:

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 White Signal, 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 obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- White Signal) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.