RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of California >> San Diego County >> Ballena >> Genealogy HelperIndex...

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 Ballena (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 Ballena. 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 doctors and hospitals 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.

Ballena is located in San Diego 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 Diego County: Imperial, Orange & Riverside.

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

  • San Diego County     (The home county of Ballena)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Ballena, with the one closest to Ballena listed first.
    • San Diego Country Estates
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Santa Ysabel
      (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Ramona
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Julian
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
    • Mesa Grande ‑ Historic
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
      • Mesa Grande is located in San Diego County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mesa Grande
    • El Capitan ‑ Historic
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
      • El Capitan is located in San Diego County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for El Capitan
    • Banner
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
      • Banner is located in San Diego County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Banner
    • Cuyamaca ‑ Historic
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Cuyamaca is located in San Diego County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cuyamaca
    • Stonewall ‑ Historic
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Stonewall is located in San Diego County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stonewall
    • Mussey Grove ‑ Historic
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
      • Mussey Grove is located in San Diego County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mussey Grove
    • Alpine
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
    • Flinn Springs
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
      • Flinn Springs is located in San Diego County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Flinn Springs
    • The Willows
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
      • The Willows is located in San Diego County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for The Willows
  • Riverside County

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

Cemeteries Near Ballena ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Ballena.

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 Ballena - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • Memory Gardens Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
  • Julian Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
  • Oak Hill Memorial Park
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
  • Dearborn Memorial Park
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
  • Indian Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
  • St. Bartholomew Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
  • Valley Center Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
  • El Cajon Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Pauma Valley Cemetery
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
  • San Marcos Cemetery
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
  • St. Francis Xavier Cemetery
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
  • El Camino Memorial Park
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Continue List   (7 more) ...
    • Bergman Family Cemetery
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
    • Carmel Valley Cemetery
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
    • Miramar National Cemetery
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)

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>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Ballena had a population of 132 people in 1895 with a post office and no railroad service.

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

  • Santa Ysabel
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
  • Wynola
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Wynola is located in San Diego County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wynola
  • Julian
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
  • Mesa Grande ‑ Historic
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
    • Mesa Grande is located in San Diego County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mesa Grande
  • El Capitan ‑ Historic
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
    • El Capitan is located in San Diego County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for El Capitan
  • Cuyamaca ‑ Historic
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Cuyamaca is located in San Diego County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cuyamaca
  • Banner
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
    • Banner is located in San Diego County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Banner
  • San Pasqual
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
    • San Pasqual is located in San Diego County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for San Pasqual
  • Alpine
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
  • Descanso
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Ranchita
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Ranchita is located in San Diego County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ranchita
  • Lakeside
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Continue List   (14 more) ...
    • Poway
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
      • Poway is located in San Diego County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Poway
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 49,246 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Poway <1>
    • Riverview
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
      • Riverview is located in San Diego County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Riverview
    • Valley Center
      (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 Ballena. See our List of 1890's Communities around Ballena.

Newspapers Published in Ballena ...

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 114 newspapers that have been published in the area around Ballena.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Ballena, there are papers which were published within 27 miles [43.5 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Ballena.

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 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 Ballena:

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 '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- Ballena) 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 Ballena, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.