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The Commemorative Quarter for California





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 Avalon (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 Avalon. 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 northeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors were in the next county to the east. Almost all of the nearby churches and cemeteries were in the county to the north.

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 north 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.

Avalon is located in Los Angeles 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 Los Angeles County: Kern, Orange, San Bernardino & Ventura.

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

  • Los Angeles County     (The home county of Avalon)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Avalon, with the one closest to Avalon listed first.
    • Two Harbors
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Fish Harbor ‑ Historic
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Fish Harbor. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fish Harbor
      • Fish Harbor is located in Los Angeles County
    • Portuguese Bend
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Portuguese Bend
      • Portuguese Bend is located in Los Angeles County
    • San Pedro
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for San Pedro
      • San Pedro is located in Los Angeles County
    • Abalone Cove ‑ Historic
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Abalone Cove
      • Abalone Cove is located in Los Angeles County
    • Miraleste
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Miraleste have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Miraleste
      • Miraleste is located in Los Angeles County
    • Rancho Palos Verdes
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
    • Rolling Hills
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
    • Dana Strand Village
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Dana Strand Village have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dana Strand Village
      • Dana Strand Village is located in Los Angeles County
    • Belmont Shore
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
    • Harbor City
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Harbor City have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harbor City
      • Harbor City is located in Los Angeles County
    • Long Beach
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
    • Naples
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Naples
      • Naples is located in Los Angeles County
  • Orange County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Avalon, with the one closest to Avalon listed first.
    • Huntington Beach
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Newport Beach
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Sunset Beach
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Seal Beach
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Surfside
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Avalon ...

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 117 newspapers that have been published in the area around Avalon.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Avalon. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Avalon and those printed in the larger area surrounding Avalon.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<4> of Avalon.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first turn to the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These helpful 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 Avalon:

Cemeteries Near Avalon ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Avalon.

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 Avalon covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

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

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>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that in 1895, Avalon had a post office and no railroad service. In 2020, Avalon had a population of 3,666 people.

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

  • San Pedro
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for San Pedro
    • San Pedro is located in Los Angeles County
  • Newport Beach
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)

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

The official website for Avalon: www.cityofavalon.com/

The official website for Los Angeles County: www.lacounty.info/

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

Footnotes ...

<1>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<2>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.
<3>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.
<4>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Avalon) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Avalon. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 33.3422, Longitude: -118.3276    
<5>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.
<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 Avalon, 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