Grant County was created from Doņa Ana County, New Mexico. An act of Territorial Legislature on January 1868 changed the name Dona Ana County to Grant County in honor of General Ulysses S. Grant. The first county seat was Central City (now Santa Clara) in 1868, and in 1869 Pinos Altos, but since 1874 has been in Silver City. Silver City sprang to life in the summer of 1870 as a tent city shortly after John Bullard discovered silver near the San Vicente Cienega. As optimism grew, townspeople began to build permanent houses using bricks made from local clay. The fruits of this labor are still standing in Silver City's six historic districts. The silver economy crashed in 1893, and in the early 20th century copper took its place as a major area industry. In recent years, tourism has also become an important economic contributor.


Resources
   Grant County Archives - Bits and pieces of info for researchers.
   Cemeteries - If you know of any graves not listed, please email me.
   New Mexico Death Index - online
   Silver City Museum - A great history resource!
   Churches - Catholic records in Grant County.
   History - Grant County Pioneers; Grant County Ranches in 1935
   Towns - That existed once or are still here in Grant County.
   Lookups - List of unpaid volunteers and what they are willing to look up
   Maps - State map, map of NM counties, historical maps.
Valuable links:
   Genealogy Sites - List of genealogy sites with tutorials and resources for researchers
   Genealogy Forms - Free genealogy forms for downloading and printing
   NMGenWeb - New Mexico's State page for USGenWeb
   USGenWeb - The USGenWeb home page with links to state pages
   WorldGenWeb - The WorldGenWeb Home page with links to countries
Queries:
   How to submit a query for posting on Grant County's site. Submit
   Post - Post a query on Ancestry's GenConnect Board.
   Read - Recent queries (January 2004-December 2004) or Query archives


Neighboring counties: Cibola Sierra Socorro Catron


Copyright 2008 Pat Bennett, Volunteer