Welcome to Otero County, Colorado

A Part of the COGENWEB & USGenWeb Projects

Hello, my name is Alice Allen and I am your Otero County Coordinator. This web site is devoted to helping you find your family who resided in Otero County. You'll find links to query sites and Message Boards where you can leave messages about your family in Otero County. We also have a lookups page, where you can find people with Otero County resources who have indicated they are willing to use them to help you, our Otero County researcher. There are records and/or links to records for Otero County. The Otero County Archives pages contain biographies, cemetery records, census records, vital records, and so forth. A new project I've just introduced is a page for Otero County families, a mini-biography of sorts. If you would like to contribute a write-up of your Otero County families, contact me and I'll be happy to put it online. Not all the records are available, but we are working at adding them as we can. If you have anything to contribute, be sure to contact me. My email address is

allen.alice@gmail.com

Copy and paste my address into your email template, add something in the subject line related to Otero County so I'll be sure to notice it, and send it along.

Please note that I do not live in Otero County, and can't help you with local research.

History and Formation of Otero County

Otero County was formed in 1889 from the western part of Bent County, and named for Miguel Otero, a founder of La Junta and head of the mercantile firm of Otero, Sellers & Company. La Junta is the county seat. If your family was in the area prior to 1889, you should check for records in cogenweb.org/bent. La Junta was first founded in 1875 as a temporary station for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, incorporated in 1881 and becoming a major commercial center in the following years. Another main town in Otero County was Rocky Ford, first founded in 1868 by Mr. A. Russell, moved to another location about 1877 and co-founded by Mr. Russell and George W. Swink. Agriculture was its principle industry, and the area was well known for its fine watermelon crop. Livestock was another industry prevalent in Otero County.

Otero County Links

USGenWeb Archives for Otero County

Records in the Archives for Otero County include the following

Tombstone Photo Project - Otero County
Tombstone Transcription Project - Otero County
Early Otero County Families
Interment.net - Otero County Cemeteries
Political Graveyard - Otero County
Colorado Photo Project - Otero County
Linkpendium - Otero County
Otero County Genealogy & History Contains links to such sources as Libraries, Funeral Homes, etc.
Libraries in Otero County
Colorado Military Project - Otero County Submit your military records here
Migrations Project - Otero County
Penny Postcards - Otero County
Recent La Junta Tribune Obituaries

Colorado Links

"The Fine Print"

USGenWeb and COGenWeb volunteers will not charge fees for services rendered, but may sometimes ask for reimbursement for postage and copies made or similar out-of-pocket expense.

ALSO: When contacted by someone offering info on your surname, make sure whether there are any charges involved before agreeing to have them do the research!

This WEB site and its contents, except where otherwise noted on the page, are copyrighted © 2023, and may not be copied, altered, converted nor uploaded to any electronic system or BBS, nor linked from any pay-for-view site, linked in such a manner as to appear to be part of another site including frame capturing, nor included in any software collection or print collection of any type without the express written permission of the author of this site, namely: The COGenWeb and/or Alice Allen, Otero County Coordinator.

My thanks to those previous coordinators of Otero County who started this site.

Last Update: 26 February 2023

Colorado Leadership:

ladyaudris@earthlink.net Colleen Pustola

maloneys7193@gmail.com Rebecca Maloney

bettybakertx@gmail.com Betty Baker

mdmonk@tx.rr.com M.D. Monk