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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 Baldwin Lake (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 Baldwin Lake. 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.

Name Variations for Baldwin Lake ...

When searching records, keep in mind that names and their spelling can change over time. Our sources include documents like maps, railroad schedules, Travel, Express and Shipping Guides. Many of these documents date from the 1800's and it's common to find spelling differences.

Although we can't give a definitive list, hopefully the following will give you a feel for the variations that might occur.

For example, a typical abbreviation for Baldwin Lake: Baldwin Lk.

You might be interested in other communities that are also named Baldwin Lake. More information can be found on our Tidbits & Trivia Page for Baldwin Lake.

If you have information about these names (such as the reason for the change, date of change, the origin of the name), please Contact Us.

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.

Baldwin Lake is located in San Bernardino County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of San Bernardino County: La Paz (AZ), Mohave (AZ), Inyo, Kern, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside & Clark (NV).

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

  • San Bernardino County     (The home county of Baldwin Lake)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Baldwin Lake, with the one closest to Baldwin Lake listed first.
    • Big Bear
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Big Bear is located in San Bernardino County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Big Bear
      • Big Bear has also been known as:
      • Big Bear City
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Big Bear <1>
    • Sugarloaf
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Moonridge
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Minnelusa
      (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
      • Minnelusa is located in San Bernardino County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Minnelusa
    • Big Bear Lake
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Fawnskin
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Angelus Oaks
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Forest Falls
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Lucerne Valley
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Mountain Home Village
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Mountain Home Village is located in San Bernardino County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mountain Home Village
    • Green Valley Lake
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
    • Arrowbear Lake
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
      • Arrowbear Lake is located in San Bernardino County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Arrowbear Lake
    • Oak Glen
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
  • Riverside County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Baldwin Lake, with the one closest to Baldwin Lake listed first.
    • Cherry Valley
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
    • Banning
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
    • Bonnie Bell
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
      • Bonnie Bell is located in Riverside County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bonnie Bell
    • Calimesa
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Cabazon
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
    • White Water
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
      • White Water is located in Riverside County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for White Water
    • Beaumont
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Desert Hot Springs
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
    • North Palm Springs
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Ordway
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Ordway is located in Riverside County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ordway
    • Garnet
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Garnet is located in Riverside County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Garnet

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

Cemeteries Near Baldwin Lake ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Baldwin Lake.

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.

Although we don't have the information ourselves, if you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our list of websites on our Genealogy Helper Page for Baldwin Lake - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • Wilbur Grave
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
  • Lucerne Valley Memorial Park
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
  • St. Marys Catholic Cemetery
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
  • Moravian Cemetery
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
  • San Gorgonio Memorial Park
    (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
  • Sunnyslope Cemetery
    (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
  • Indian Cemetery
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
  • Forest Lawn Memorial Gardens
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Mountain View Cemetery
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Mt. View Cemetery
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Sunnyslope Cemetery
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
  • Mountain Valley Memorial Park
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
  • Continue List   (6 more) ...

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.<4>

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

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

  • Mentone
    (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
  • Eastbern ‑ Historic
    (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
    • Eastbern is located in San Bernardino County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eastbern
  • Banning
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
  • Redlands
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Redlands is located in San Bernardino County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Redlands
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 72,271 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Redlands <1>
  • Arrowhead Springs
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
    • Arrowhead Springs is located in San Bernardino County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Arrowhead Springs
  • Lugonia ‑ Historic
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Lugonia is located in San Bernardino County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lugonia
  • Victoria
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Victoria is located in San Bernardino County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Victoria

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

Newspapers Published in Baldwin Lake ...

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 155 newspapers that have been published in the area around Baldwin Lake.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Baldwin Lake, 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 Baldwin Lake.

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 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 Baldwin Lake:

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 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.
<3>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Baldwin Lake) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<4>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 Baldwin Lake, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.