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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 Big River (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 Big River. 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 Big River ...

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 have occurred.

Another variation: Bigriver.

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 northwest 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 north.

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 north 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.

Big River is located in San Bernardino 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 San Bernardino County: La Paz (AZ), Mohave (AZ), Inyo, Kern, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside & Clark (NV).

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

  • San Bernardino County     (The home county of Big River)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Big River, with the one closest to Big River listed first.
    • Earp
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Bluewater
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Bluewater have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bluewater
      • Bluewater is located in San Bernardino County
    • Vidal
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Vidal have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Vidal
      • Vidal is located in San Bernardino County
    • Parker Dam
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Havasu Palms
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Havasu Palms
      • Havasu Palms is located in San Bernardino County
    • Havasu Lake
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Havasu Lake
      • Havasu Lake is located in San Bernardino County
  • La Paz County (AZ)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Big River, with the one closest to Big River listed first.
    • Parker
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Parker
      • Parker is located in La Paz County (AZ)
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 3,281 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Parker <1>
    • Bluewater
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Bluewater have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bluewater
      • Bluewater is located in La Paz County (AZ)
    • Cienega Springs
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cienega Springs
      • Cienega Springs is located in La Paz County (AZ)
    • Poston
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
    • Parker Strip
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Parker Strip have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Parker Strip
      • Parker Strip is located in La Paz County (AZ)
    • Bouse
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Swansea ‑ Historic
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Swansea have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Swansea
      • Swansea is located in La Paz County (AZ)
    • Utting
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Utting
      • Utting is located in La Paz County (AZ)
  • Mohave County (AZ)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Big River, with the one closest to Big River listed first.
    • Lake Havasu City
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
    • Desert Hills
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Desert Hills have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Desert Hills
      • Desert Hills is located in Mohave County (AZ)

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

Newspapers Published in Big River ...

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 35 newspapers that have been published in the area around Big River.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Big River, there are papers which were published within 24 miles [38.6 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Big River.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we start 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 Big River:

Cemeteries Near Big River ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Big River.

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

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

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

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

The official website for San Bernardino County: www.sbcounty.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>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 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Big River) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Big River. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 34.1341, Longitude: -114.3718    
<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.




 

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In closing, please keep in mind that we can not guarantee the accuracy or timeliness of the information on this website, so use with care. We encourage you to double-check the information that is critical to you.

If you've found an error or have additional information that you would like to share, please don't hesitate to write: Click here to contact us.

This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024