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TAOS COUNTY, NEW MEXICO
How the USGenWeb Project Started
In June, 1996, a
group of genealogists organized the Kentucky Comprehensive Genealogy Database. The idea was to
provide a single entry point for all counties in Kentucky, where collected databases
would be indexed and cross-linked, so that, even if an individual were found in more that
one county, they could be located in the index. At the same time, some volunteers were
found who were willing to coordinate the collection of databases and generally oversee the
contents of the web page. Eventually, this was expanded to all states and all
counties across the US.
County Coordinator
My name is Thomas
Bombaci, Jr. . I
am the coordinator for the NMGenWeb Valencia County New
Mexico website. Sumittals of historical documents, photos,
and just about anything genealogical related are always
welcome for publication in this website.
To volunteer to host a New Mexico county, please contact the
NMGenWeb State Coordinator Leon Moya.
Neighboring
Counties in New Mexico
Colfax
Mora
Rio Arriba
Taos County Background
The earliest enumeration of
distinct plazas for the Taos area was from 1796, the same
year the town, or Don
Fernando Grant, was made to sixty families. The 1796
census reported a
non-Indian population of 774, and listed a total of six
placitas besides San Gerónimo
or Taos Pueblo, each named for its patron saint, in the
Taos Valley:
- San Francisco (present-day
Ranchos de Taos),
- Santa Gertrudis,
- Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe
(Don Fernando),
- La Purísima Concepción
(Upper Ranchitos),
- San Francisco de Paula
(Lower Ranchitos), and
- Nuestra Señora de Dolores
(Cañon).
All but Santa Gertrudis are
easily-identifiable communities that still exist today.
All of these communities
cluster along the banks of the Río Pueblo, the Río Lucero,
the Río Fernando, and
the Río Grande del Rancho. The town of Don Fernando shared
its name with the
river it first depended on but never enjoyed exclusive
rights to, since upstream sits the placita of Nuestra Señora de Dolores or
modern Cañon. On the Río Pueblo, Don Fernando sits downstream from Taos
Pueblo. As early as 1797, the citizens of the Don Fernando Grant petitioned the
governor for sobrante or surplus rights to waters from
both the Río Pueblo
and Río Lucero, since one river alone could not sustain
their expanding needs.
All villages in the Taos constellation exist in some kind
of upstream-downstream relationship
to one another. Each community sits in an upper, middle,
or lower watershed--and
this location dictates its relationship to the neighbors
with whom it must share
irrigation water.
Look Up and Research Request
I am unable to do your personal
research. I do not live in Taos county, and I do not have access to additional
records. If you do not see the information you are seeking in this site, I do not
have it, as everything I have is posted in this site.
Copyright
Information
Copyright © 2023. All
rights reserved on coding and graphics by web programming
author. Volunteers hold
copyright to the material they have donated to this site.
Please refer to
original copies of materials for your use. Not to be
copied and used in any format to any other site or in any other media
including CDs, books, and visual presentations. Small parts (not all one surnames
studies) may be used in personal family genealogies. Please cite your source (this site)
when using this data.
Special Recognition and Memoriam for Karen Kitchell.
Born 11-9-1949 and relocated to heaven on 1-13-2021,
Karen was
the orignal County Coordinator for the Taos web site and
did an amazing job in putting together the content and then
organizing it in the original web site.
All of that
content that comprised the Taos site will be fully
available in the new Taos county web site.
The Taos County
Website last updated May
13 2023