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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 El Gran Valle (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 El Gran Valle. 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 El Gran Valle ...

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 occur.

El Gran Valle has also been known as: El Gran Valle Colonia.

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 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.

El Gran Valle is located in El Paso County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of El Paso County: Dona Ana (NM), Otero (NM) & Hudspeth.

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

  • El Paso County     (The home county of El Gran Valle)
    • The following are listed by their distance from El Gran Valle, with the one closest to El Gran Valle listed first.
    • Socorro
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
    • San Elizario
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Clint
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
      • Clint is located in El Paso County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clint
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,115 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Clint <1>
    • Belen
      (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
      • Belen is located in El Paso County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Belen
    • Sparks
      (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
      • Sparks is located in El Paso County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sparks
    • Morning Glory
      (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
      • Morning Glory is located in El Paso County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Morning Glory
    • Horizon City
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Agua Dulce
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
      • Agua Dulce is located in El Paso County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Agua Dulce
      • Agua Dulce has also been known as:
      • Agua Dulce Colonia
    • Fabens
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Homestead Meadows South
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
    • El Paso
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Fort Bliss
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
      • Fort Bliss is located in El Paso County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fort Bliss
    • Tornillo
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Hudspeth County
    • Acala
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Acala is located in Hudspeth County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Acala
  • Dona Ana County (NM)
    • The following are listed by their distance from El Gran Valle, with the one closest to El Gran Valle listed first.
    • Sunland Park
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Santa Teresa
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Chaparral
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
      • Chaparral is located in Dona Ana County (NM)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chaparral

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

Cemeteries Near El Gran Valle ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of El Gran Valle.

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 El Gran Valle - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • Mt. Carmel Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mt. Carmel Cemetery
    • The Mt. Carmel Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Our Lady of Mt. Carmel
  • San Lorenzo Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
  • Cuadrilla Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Evergreen Cemetery East
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
  • Concordia Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Evergreen Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Temple Mt. Sinai Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Ft. Bliss National Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Rest Lawn Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
  • Restlawn Memorial Park
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
  • Canutillo Cemetery
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)

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

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

  • San Elizario
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
  • Clint
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Clint is located in El Paso County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clint
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,115 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Clint <1>
  • Belen
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Belen is located in El Paso County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Belen
  • Ysleta
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Ysleta is located in El Paso County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ysleta
  • Fabens
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Alfalfa
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Alfalfa is located in El Paso County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Alfalfa
  • El Paso
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
  • Courchesne
    (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
    • Courchesne is located in El Paso County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Courchesne
  • Montoya
    (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
    • Montoya is located in El Paso County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Montoya
  • Canutillo
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Strauss ‑ Historic
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Strauss is located in Dona Ana County (NM)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Strauss

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

Newspapers Published in El Gran Valle ...

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 79 newspapers that have been published in the area around El Gran Valle.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of El Gran Valle, there are papers which were published within 15 miles [24.1 km]<2>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for El Gran Valle.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we start 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 El Gran Valle:

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 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- El Gran Valle) 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 El Gran Valle, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.