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Our Genealogy Helper

Introduction ...

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

We've added Yankee to our Gazetteer with the hope that we can develop more information. If you can help us with Yankee, 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 Yankee (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 Yankee. 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 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.

Although our information shows that the community of Yankee is historic, it would have been located within present day Colfax 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 Colfax County: Costilla (CO), Las Animas (CO), Harding, Mora, Taos & Union.

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

  • Colfax County     (The home county of Yankee)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Yankee, with the one closest to Yankee listed first.
    • Raton
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Brilliant ‑ Historic
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
      • Brilliant is located in Colfax County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brilliant
    • Kiowa ‑ Historic
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
      • Kiowa is located in Colfax County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kiowa
    • Maxwell
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
  • Union County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Yankee, with the one closest to Yankee listed first.
    • Folsom
      (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
    • Capulin
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
    • Des Moines
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Las Animas County (CO)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Yankee, with the one closest to Yankee listed first.
    • Wootton
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Wootton is located in Las Animas County (CO)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wootton
    • San Miguel ‑ Historic
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
      • San Miguel is located in Las Animas County (CO)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for San Miguel
    • Morley
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Morley is located in Las Animas County (CO)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Morley
    • Starkville
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Trinchera
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Engleville
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Engleville is located in Las Animas County (CO)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Engleville
    • Sopris ‑ Historic
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
      • Sopris is located in Las Animas County (CO)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sopris
    • Trinidad
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
      • Trinidad is located in Las Animas County (CO)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Trinidad
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 8,127 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Trinidad <2>
    • Beshoar
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
      • Beshoar is located in Las Animas County (CO)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Beshoar
    • El Moro
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
      • El Moro is located in Las Animas County (CO)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for El Moro
    • Cokedale
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Cokedale is located in Las Animas County (CO)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cokedale
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 121 people
    • Madrid ‑ Historic
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Madrid is located in Las Animas County (CO)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Madrid

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

Cemeteries Near Yankee ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Yankee.

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 Yankee - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • Fairmont Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
  • St. Johns Methodist Church Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Mt. Calvary Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
  • Johnson Park Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
  • Lucero Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Leyba Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Tapia Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Barela Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
  • Pacheco Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
  • Trinchera Plaza Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Nola Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Cordova Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
  • Continue List   (37 more) ...

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

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

  • Raton
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Dillon
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Dillon is located in Colfax County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dillon
  • Wootton
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Wootton is located in Las Animas County (CO)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wootton
  • Morley
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Morley is located in Las Animas County (CO)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Morley
  • Barela
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
    • Barela is located in Las Animas County (CO)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Barela
  • Starkville
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
  • Trinchera
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Engleville
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Engleville is located in Las Animas County (CO)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Engleville
  • Trinidad
    (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
    • Trinidad is located in Las Animas County (CO)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Trinidad
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 8,127 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Trinidad <2>
  • Continue List   (6 more) ...
    • Sopris ‑ Historic
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
      • Sopris is located in Las Animas County (CO)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sopris
    • El Moro
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
      • El Moro is located in Las Animas County (CO)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for El Moro
    • Madrid ‑ Historic
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Madrid is located in Las Animas County (CO)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Madrid
    • Kiowa ‑ Historic
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
      • Kiowa is located in Colfax County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kiowa
    • Forbes ‑ Historic
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
      • Forbes is located in Las Animas County (CO)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Forbes
    • Earl
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
      • Earl is located in Las Animas County (CO)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Earl

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

Newspapers Published in Yankee ...

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 77 newspapers that have been published in the area around Yankee.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Yankee, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Yankee.

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 Yankee:

Footnotes ...

<1>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 Yankee, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<3>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- Yankee) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<4>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.