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Our Genealogy Helper

Introduction ...

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

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

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.

Plainfield has also been known as: Bueno, Poverty Flat, Poverty Flats and Spanish Valley.

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 southeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors and hospitals were in the next county to the east. 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 east 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 Plainfield is historic, it would have been located within present day Grand County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Grand County: Garfield (CO), Mesa (CO), Carbon, Emery, San Juan & Uintah.

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

  • Grand County     (The home county of Plainfield)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Plainfield, with the one closest to Plainfield listed first.
    • Wilson's Mesa ‑ Historic
      (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Wilson's Mesa. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wilson's Mesa
      • Wilson's Mesa is located in Grand County
      • Wilson's Mesa has also been known as:
      • Mesa
    • Moab
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Moab
      • Moab is located in Grand County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 5,373 people
      • Former names for Moab:
      • Grand Valley
      • Mormon Fort
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Moab <3>
    • Castle Valley
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Castle Valley have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Castle Valley
      • Castle Valley is located in Grand County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 351 people
    • Castleton ‑ Historic
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Castleton
      • Castleton is located in Grand County
    • Basin ‑ Historic
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Basin
      • Basin is located in Grand County
    • Richardson ‑ Historic
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Richardson. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Richardson
      • Richardson is located in Grand County
    • Dewey ‑ Historic
      (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Dewey have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dewey
      • Dewey is located in Grand County
  • San Juan County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Plainfield, with the one closest to Plainfield listed first.
    • Spanish Valley
      (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spanish Valley
      • Spanish Valley is located in San Juan County
    • La Sal
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
    • La Sal ‑ Historic
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for La Sal have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for La Sal
      • La Sal is located in San Juan County
      • Former name for La Sal:
      • Coyote
      • La Sal has also been known as:
      • Old La Sal
    • Home of Truth ‑ Historic
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Home of Truth
      • Home of Truth is located in San Juan County
  • Mesa County (CO)
  • Montrose County (CO)
    • Paradox
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Paradox have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Paradox
      • Paradox is located in Montrose County (CO)
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Paradox <3>

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

Newspapers Published in Plainfield ...

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 3 newspapers that have been published in the area around Plainfield.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Plainfield, there are papers which were published within 7 miles [11.3 km]<5>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Plainfield.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we like to start with the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These professional and volunteer 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 Plainfield:

Cemeteries Near Plainfield ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Plainfield.

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 Plainfield covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

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

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

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

  • Moab
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Moab
    • Moab is located in Grand County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 5,373 people
    • Former names for Moab:
    • Grand Valley
    • Mormon Fort
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Moab <3>
  • Richardson ‑ Historic
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Richardson. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Richardson
    • Richardson is located in Grand County
  • La Sal
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
  • La Sal ‑ Historic
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for La Sal have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for La Sal
    • La Sal is located in San Juan County
    • Former name for La Sal:
    • Coyote
    • La Sal has also been known as:
    • Old La Sal
  • Paradox
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Paradox have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Paradox
    • Paradox is located in Montrose County (CO)
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Paradox <3>

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

The official website for Grand County: www.grandcountyutah.net/

The official website for State of Utah: https://www.utah.gov/

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 Plainfield, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<2>An 'estimated' location is one where we have been given GPS coordinates, but are unable to verify the accuracy of those coordinates. That said, we have some confidence that we have placed the marker near the actual location. A typical reason for being unable to verify a location is that it might be on private property or maybe historic and gone without an obvious trace.
<3>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<4>The location has been supplied by the Geographic Names Information System - which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While these values should be definitive, we found that accuracy can vary and you should double-check the location if accuracy is required.
<5>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 drawn from Point A (ie- Plainfield) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Plainfield. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 38.4944, Longitude: -109.4553    
<6>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.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024