TAOS County NM Home

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.

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 Sumittals of historical documents, photos, and just about anything genealogical related are always welcome for publication in this website.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, Cheryl Burbank.

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.

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.