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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 (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. 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 southwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals and doctors were in the next county to the west. 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 west 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 is located in Placer 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 Placer County: El Dorado, Nevada, Sacramento, Sutter, Yuba, Carson City (NV), Douglas (NV) & Washoe (NV).

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

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

Cemeteries Near Alta ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Alta.

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Alta, with the one closest to Alta 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 Alta had a population of 136 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service.

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

  • Towle
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Towle have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Towle
    • Towle is located in Placer County
  • Dutch Flat
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
  • Gold Run
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
  • You Bet ‑ Historic
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for You Bet. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for You Bet
    • You Bet is located in Nevada County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to You Bet
    • From Alta to You Bet
  • Blue Canyon
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Blue Canyon have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Blue Canyon
    • Blue Canyon is located in Placer County
  • Buena Vista ‑ Historic
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Buena Vista have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Buena Vista
    • Buena Vista is located in Nevada County
  • Chicago Park
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Westville
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Westville have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Westville
    • Westville is located in Placer County
  • Emigrant Gap
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Colfax
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
  • Washington
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
  • Kres
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Kres. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kres
    • Kres is located in Nevada County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Kres
    • From Alta to Kres
  • Continue List   (14 more) ...

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

Newspapers Published in Alta ...

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 56 newspapers that have been published in the area around Alta.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Alta, there are papers which were published within 13 miles [20.9 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Alta.

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 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 Alta:

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

The official website for Placer County: www.placer.ca.gov/

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 '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- Alta) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Alta. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 39.2070, Longitude: -120.8111    
<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 Alta, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 28 Apr 2025