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Our Genealogy Helper

Introduction ...

We have a couple of goals for our Gazetteer:

  • That it be a tool which helps us with planning our trips.
  • We're trying to shape our Gazetteer as a tool to help us understand the community in which our ancestors lived, the community that was part of their daily lives.
  • On our trips, we try to visit those places where our ancestors left their footprints.

By learning about Alta Vista (and the surrounding area) during the time that our ancestors lived, we hope to have a better understanding of both their community and its relationship to their lifes. We hope that this tool helps to give us an insight into their world.

As we add data and organize our Gazetteer to help with our family research, we will be adding to this our Genealogical Helper for Alta Vista. While we don't have information that is specific to any given person or family, we intend to expand our understanding about where and how people lived.

Neighboring Counties ...

When searching for family records, we have frequently made the mistake of not checking the neighboring counties.

For example, we have great-grandparents who lived in the southeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals and doctors were in the next county to the east. Almost all of the nearby churches and cemeteries were in the county to the south.

So when searching for records, we had our best success by looking in neighboring counties instead of the county in which they lived:  their home county contained property and probate records; the county to the east contained birth and death records; the county to the south contained their burial records. If we hadn't included the neighboring counties, we would have missed many valuable sources of information.

If you're in a similar situation, we hope that the following information helps.

Alta Vista is located in Inyo County.

To see how the shape of California's counties have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Inyo County: Fresno, Kern, Mono, San Bernardino, Tulare, Clark (NV), Esmeralda (NV) & Nye (NV).

Below are the counties that are near Alta Vista. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Alta Vista:

  • Inyo County     (The home county of Alta Vista)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Alta Vista, with the one closest to Alta Vista listed first.
    • Mesa
      (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mesa
      • Mesa is located in Inyo County
    • Round Valley
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Round Valley
      • Round Valley is located in Inyo County
    • Rovana
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rovana
      • Rovana is located in Inyo County
    • Oteys Sierra Village ‑ Historic
      (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Oteys Sierra Village have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oteys Sierra Village
      • Oteys Sierra Village is located in Inyo County
    • Rocking K
      (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rocking K
      • Rocking K is located in Inyo County
    • Brockmans Corner
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brockmans Corner
      • Brockmans Corner is located in Inyo County
    • Starlite Estates
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Starlite Estates
      • Starlite Estates is located in Inyo County
    • West Bishop ‑ Historic
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West Bishop
      • West Bishop is located in Inyo County
    • Dixon Lane - Meadow Creek
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
    • Scheelite ‑ Historic
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Scheelite
      • Scheelite is located in Inyo County
    • Bishop
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
    • Sunland
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sunland
      • Sunland is located in Inyo County
    • Laws
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Laws
      • Laws is located in Inyo County
      • Former name for Laws:
      • Bishop Depot
  • Fresno County
  • Mono County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Alta Vista, with the one closest to Alta Vista listed first.
    • Mesa Camp
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mesa Camp
      • Mesa Camp is located in Mono County
    • Chalfant Valley
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chalfant Valley
      • Chalfant Valley is located in Mono County
    • Tom's Place
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tom's Place
      • Tom's Place is located in Mono County
    • Aspen Springs
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Aspen Springs
      • Aspen Springs is located in Mono County
    • South Landing
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for South Landing
      • South Landing is located in Mono County
    • North Landing
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for North Landing
      • North Landing is located in Mono County
    • Hammil
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hammil
      • Hammil is located in Mono County
    • Convict Lake
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Convict Lake
      • Convict Lake is located in Mono County
    • Whitmore Hot Springs
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Whitmore Hot Springs
      • Whitmore Hot Springs is located in Mono County
      • Former names for Whitmore Hot Springs:
      • Whitmore Tub Spring
      • Whitmore Tubs
    • Benton Crossing
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Benton Crossing have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Benton Crossing
      • Benton Crossing is located in Mono County
    • Benton Hot Springs
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Benton Hot Springs
      • Benton Hot Springs is located in Mono County
    • Lake Mary
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lake Mary
      • Lake Mary is located in Mono County
    • Benton
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)

For an expanded list of the communities that are closest to Alta Vista, see our County-by-County Page for Alta Vista.

Newspapers Published in Alta Vista ...

An ongoing effort between the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has resulted in the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).

To share their results, the partnership has created the Chronicling America website. The goal of this partnership is to assemble a database about the current and historic newspapers of the United States. This includes a growing collection of scanned images from selected papers. All of it available to the public on their website.

Using information that we've taken from the Chronicling America website, we've identified 22 newspapers that have been published in the area around Alta Vista.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Alta Vista, there are papers which were published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Alta Vista.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we begin with the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These professional and volunteer websites offer the information directly or else point to where you can find it. Their information is open to everyone.

To help you get started, the following links will take you to the pages that are relevant to Alta Vista:

Cemeteries Near Alta Vista ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Alta Vista.

This is a new section and is likely to have errors. If you find an error, such as a missing cemetery or we have the wrong name, please let us know. If you know of them, we would also appreciate learning about previous or alternate names.

If you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our selection of Genealogy Websites (see below).

If not found below, our Cemetery List for Alta Vista covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Alta Vista, with the one closest to Alta Vista listed first.

  • Sunland Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
  • West Line Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the West Line Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located in Bishop.
    • The West Line Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Pioneer Cemetery
    • West Line Street Cemetery
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the West Line Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #8276 <4>
  • East Line Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the East Line Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located outside and to the east of Bishop.
    • The East Line Cemetery has also been known as:
    • East Line Street Cemetery
    • Line Street Cemetery
    • Masonic Cemetery
    • Odd Fellows & Masonic Cemetery
    • Oddfellows & Masonic Cemetery
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the East Line Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #7943 <4>
  • Mt. Morrison Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
  • Big Pine Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
  • Woodman Cemetery
    (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Woodman Cemetery is located outside and to the south of Big Pine.
    • The Woodman Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Woodman of the World Cemetery
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Woodman Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2473277 <4>
  • Benton Hot Springs Cemetery
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
  • Black Lake Cemetery
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
  • Gibbs Cemetery
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for the Gibbs Cemetery. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<5>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Gibbs Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2313825 <4>
  • Montgomery City Cemetery
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)

Nearby Communities in 1895 ...

We've built the following list with information that came from an Atlas published by Rand McNally in 1895. The Atlas had details such as the population of the community (which appears to have come from the 1890 Census) and whether there was a post office and/or railroad service available. We also indicate if the community no longer exists and is now historic.<6>

While we didn't find Alta Vista in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Alta Vista.

These communities are listed based on their distance from Alta Vista, with the one closest to Alta Vista listed first.

  • Round Valley
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Round Valley
    • Round Valley is located in Inyo County
  • Bishop
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
  • Laws
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Laws
    • Laws is located in Inyo County
    • Former name for Laws:
    • Bishop Depot
  • Hammil
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hammil
    • Hammil is located in Mono County
  • Big Pine
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
  • Zurich ‑ Historic
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Zurich
    • Zurich is located in Inyo County
    • Zurich has also been known as:
    • Zurich Station
  • Benton
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)

We've also created an expanded list of communities that existed in the 1890's and were located in the area around Alta Vista. See our List of 1890's Communities around Alta Vista.

Unfortunately, we don't know of a website for Alta Vista. If you can help, please contact us through our Feedback Page.

The official website for Inyo County: www.inyocounty.us/

The official website for State of California: https://www.ca.gov/

Footnotes ...

<1>The location has been supplied by the Geographic Names Information System - which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While these values should be definitive, we found that accuracy can vary and you should double-check the location if accuracy is required.
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<3>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Alta Vista) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Alta Vista. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 37.4128, Longitude: -118.5436    
<4>The Find-a-Grave website is an excellent research tool with information about a cemetery's location and interments. They also offer a forum for their members which can provide additional help. More information about Find-a-Grave can be found on their website: findagrave.com.
<5>An 'estimated' location is one where we have been given GPS coordinates, but are unable to verify the accuracy of those coordinates. That said, we have some confidence that we have placed the marker near the actual location. A typical reason for being unable to verify a location is that it might be on private property or maybe historic and gone without an obvious trace.
<6>We use the term 'Historic' broadly and it generally means that the community no longer exists. However, it can also mean that the community might still exist, but was significantly larger or had a more 'official' existence in the past than it does now. Unfortunately our sources of data have proven to be unreliable. If you can provide us with more specific information about Alta Vista, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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In closing, please keep in mind that we can not guarantee the accuracy or timeliness of the information on this website, so use with care. We encourage you to double-check the information that is critical to you.

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This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024