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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 Dora Belle (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 Dora Belle. 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 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.

Dora Belle is located in Fresno 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 Fresno County: Inyo, Kings, Madera, Merced, Mono, San Benito & Tulare.

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

  • Fresno County     (The home county of Dora Belle)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Dora Belle, with the one closest to Dora Belle listed first.
    • Shaver Lake
      (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Pineridge
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pineridge
      • Pineridge is located in Fresno County
    • Bretz Mill
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bretz Mill
      • Bretz Mill is located in Fresno County
    • Meadow Lakes
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Meadow Lakes
      • Meadow Lakes is located in Fresno County
    • Big Creek
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Big Creek
      • Big Creek is located in Fresno County
      • Former names for Big Creek:
      • Big Creek Flats
      • Cascada
      • Manzanita Park
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Big Creek <1>
    • Tollhouse
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
    • Huntington Lake
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Auberry
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
    • Prather
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Lakeshore
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Piedra
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
    • Mono Hot Springs
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Friant
      (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
  • Madera County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Dora Belle, with the one closest to Dora Belle listed first.
    • North Fork
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Wishon
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wishon
      • Wishon is located in Madera County
    • The Pines
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for The Pines
      • The Pines is located in Madera County
    • Bass Lake
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Millerton ‑ Historic
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Millerton. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Millerton
      • Millerton is located in Madera County
    • O'Neals
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
    • Coarsegold
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
    • Oakhurst
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
    • Yosemite Forks
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Yosemite Forks
      • Yosemite Forks is located in Madera County
    • Yosemite Lakes Park
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Yosemite Lakes Park
      • Yosemite Lakes Park is located in Madera County
      • Yosemite Lakes Park has also been known as:
      • Yosemite Lakes
    • Ahwahnee
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Nipinnawasee ‑ Historic
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nipinnawasee
      • Nipinnawasee is located in Madera County
  • Mariposa County
    • Fish Camp
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Nevada County
    • Cedar Crest
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cedar Crest
      • Cedar Crest is located in Nevada County

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

Newspapers Published in Dora Belle ...

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 13 newspapers that have been published in the area around Dora Belle.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Dora Belle, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Dora Belle.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first visit the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These websites either 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 Dora Belle:

Cemeteries Near Dora Belle ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Dora Belle.

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

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

  • Big Sandy Rancheria Tribal Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
  • Tollhouse Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Watts Valley Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Watts Valley Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<5> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Watts Valley Cemetery
  • North Fork Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the North Fork Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<5> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the North Fork Cemetery
  • Auberry Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Hughes Creek Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Hughes Creek Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<5> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Hughes Creek Cemetery
  • Walker Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Walker Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<5> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Walker Cemetery
  • Fine Gold Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Fine Gold Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<5> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Fine Gold Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #7970 <4>
  • Winchell Cove Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Winchell Cove Cemetery is located outside and to the east of Friant.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Winchell Cove Cemetery
  • Academy Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
  • Winchell Cove Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Picayune Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Picayune Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<5> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Picayune Cemetery
  • Continue List   (7 more) ...
    • Hazelton Cemetery
      (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Hazelton Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<5> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Hazelton Cemetery
    • Oakhill Cemetery
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
    • Redbank Cemetery
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Redbank Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<5> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Redbank Cemetery

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 Dora Belle in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Dora Belle.

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

  • Tollhouse
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
  • Auberry
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
  • Sentinel ‑ Historic
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Sentinel have been provided by the GNIS.<5> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sentinel
    • Sentinel is located in Fresno County
  • Letcher ‑ Historic
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Letcher have been provided by the GNIS.<5> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Letcher
    • Letcher is located in Fresno County
  • Yokuts
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
  • Dunlap
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Grub Gulch ‑ Historic
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Grub Gulch have been provided by the GNIS.<5> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grub Gulch
    • Grub Gulch is located in Madera County

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

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

The official website for Fresno County: www.co.fresno.ca.us/

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>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Dora Belle) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Dora Belle. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 37.1108, Longitude: -119.3200    
<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>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.
<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 Dora Belle, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024