Welcome To
Taos County, New Mexico


Hello! My name is Karen Mitchell and I am the coordinator for Taos County. I have posted some genealogy links pertaining to the county for you to use and enjoy. If you know of any others please drop me an e-mail so that I can add them in.

Taos County Resources
Here is where you will find Queries, Surnames, Bible Records, Deeds, Obituaries, Pensions, Wills, Census, Histories, and Databases.

TAOS COUNTY Mailing List!

Mailing Lists are a great way to contact other researchers, meet cousins, or learn new methods for gathering data.
If you wish to subscribe to the NMTAOS mail list send "subscribe NMTAOS-L" (that's "el" not "one") as the only line of text to NMTAOS-L-request@rootsweb.com
We look forward to seeing you there!


NM USGenWeb Project Links

Taos County Lookups Volunteers who have offered their time and help to do specific lookups in Taos County. Be sure and give them a big "Thank You" if you use their services.

U.S. Census Bureau Statistics Go here to read the latest census statistics for Taos County.



USGenWeb Project Page Get to the other states here.

NMGenWeb Project State Page Get to the other NM counties from here.

WorldGenWeb Page Get to the other countries here.

About The USGenWeb Project


In March and April of 1996, a group of genealogists organized the Kentucky Comprehensive Genealogy Database Project. The idea was to provide a single entry point for all counties in Kentucky, where collected databases would be stored. In addition, the databases would be indexed and cross-linked, so that even if an individual were found in more than one county, they could be located in the index.

At the same time, volunteers were found who were willing to coordinate the collection of databases and generally oversee the contents of the web page.

In June, as the Kentucky project was nearing completion, it was decided to start a page for each of the remaining states, and as with the Kentucky project, volunteers were found to host the state pages.

In December of 1997 I became the Taos County coordinator and agreed to create and maintain the website. My utmost thanks and gratitude to Art Michaelis for allowing me to share his graphics and to Leon Moya for walking me through this project. I am very much open to any and all suggestions and comments about the website, and I encourage all those doing research in Taos County to become involved in the program. Your help will be most welcome. Please e-mail me at Karen Mitchell.


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 relation-ship 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.



Please email comments and suggestion to Karen Mitchell.

© Karen Mitchell