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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 Abilene (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 Abilene. 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 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.

Abilene is located in Tulare 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 Tulare County: Fresno, Inyo, Kern & Kings.

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

  • Tulare County     (The home county of Abilene)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Abilene, with the one closest to Abilene listed first.
    • Strathmore
      (Less than 2 miles to the west)
    • Gillete ‑ Historic
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gillete
      • Gillete is located in Tulare County
    • Lindsay
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Porterville
      (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • East Porterville
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for East Porterville
      • East Porterville is located in Tulare County
    • Poplar
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Poplar
      • Poplar is located in Tulare County
      • Poplar has also been known as:
      • Poplar - Cotton Center
    • Woodville
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Woodville
      • Woodville is located in Tulare County
    • Exeter
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Terra Bella
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
    • Springville
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
    • East Farmersville
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for East Farmersville
      • East Farmersville is located in Tulare County
    • Farmersville
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Saucelito ‑ Historic
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Saucelito have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Saucelito
      • Saucelito is located in Tulare County
  • Kern County
    • Delano
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
  • Kings County
    • Corcoran
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)

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

Newspapers Published in Abilene ...

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 44 newspapers that have been published in the area around Abilene.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Abilene, there are papers which were published within 26 miles [41.8 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Abilene.

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 Abilene:

Cemeteries Near Abilene ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Abilene.

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

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

  • Lindsay - Strathmore Public Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
  • Porterville Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Porterville Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Porterville Cemetery
  • St. Anne's Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
  • Vandalia Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
  • Woodville Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Zion Lutheran Church Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
  • Crabtree Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
  • Hamilton Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Hamilton Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Hamilton Cemetery
  • Deep Creek Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Tule River Indian Reservation Lower Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Tulare Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Tulare Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Tulare Cemetery
  • Tipton - Pixley Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Continue List   (10 more) ...
    • Lone Oak Cemetery
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Lone Oak Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Lone Oak Cemetery
    • Tule River Indian Reservation Upper Cemetery
      (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
    • Woodlake Cemetery
      (18 miles [29 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.<5>

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

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

  • Lindsay
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
  • Porterville
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
  • Plano
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Plano have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Plano
    • Plano is located in Tulare County
  • Woodville
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Woodville
    • Woodville is located in Tulare County
  • Poplar
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Poplar
    • Poplar is located in Tulare County
    • Poplar has also been known as:
    • Poplar - Cotton Center
  • Exeter
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Terra Bella
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
  • Globe
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Globe have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Globe
    • Globe is located in Tulare County
  • Yokohl
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Yokohl have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Yokohl
    • Yokohl is located in Tulare County
  • Farmersville
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
  • Milo
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Milo
    • Milo is located in Tulare County
  • Tipton
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
  • Continue List   (12 more) ...
    • Tulare
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tulare
      • Tulare is located in Tulare County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 66,797 people
      • Tulare has also been known as:
      • Tulare City
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Tulare <1>
    • Pixley
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Visalia
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)

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

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

The official website for Tulare County: www.co.tulare.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>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.
<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- Abilene) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Abilene. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 36.1455, Longitude: -119.0537       In this case, the coordinates for Abilene have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<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>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 Abilene, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024