RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of California >> San Diego County >> Borrego >> 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 Borrego (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 Borrego. 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.

Borrego 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 Borrego. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Borrego:

  • San Diego County     (The home county of Borrego)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Borrego, with the one closest to Borrego listed first.
    • Borrego Springs
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Ranchita
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
      • Ranchita is located in San Diego County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ranchita
    • Ocotillo Wells
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Ocotillo Wells is located in San Diego County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ocotillo Wells
    • Banner
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Banner is located in San Diego County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Banner
    • Julian
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
    • Warner Springs
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
    • Cuyamaca ‑ Historic
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Cuyamaca is located in San Diego County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cuyamaca
    • Stonewall ‑ Historic
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Stonewall is located in San Diego County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stonewall
    • Santa Ysabel
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
    • Mount Laguna
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
    • Holcomb Village
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
      • Holcomb Village is located in San Diego County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Holcomb Village
    • Mesa Grande ‑ Historic
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
      • Mesa Grande is located in San Diego County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mesa Grande
    • Guatay
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Guatay is located in San Diego County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Guatay
  • Imperial County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Borrego, with the one closest to Borrego listed first.
    • Coolidge Springs
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Coolidge Springs is located in Imperial County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Coolidge Springs
    • Desert Shores
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
      • Desert Shores is located in Imperial County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Desert Shores
    • Salton Sea Beach
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
      • Salton Sea Beach is located in Imperial County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Salton Sea Beach
    • Salton City
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
  • Riverside County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Borrego, with the one closest to Borrego listed first.
    • Oasis
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
      • Oasis is located in Riverside County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oasis
    • Martinez
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Martinez is located in Riverside County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Martinez
    • Pinyon Pines
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
      • Pinyon Pines is located in Riverside County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pinyon Pines
    • Alpine Village
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
      • Alpine Village is located in Riverside County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Alpine Village
    • Mecca
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
    • La Quinta
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
    • Sandy Korner
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
      • Sandy Korner is located in Riverside County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sandy Korner
    • Thermal
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
    • Anza
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)

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

Cemeteries Near Borrego ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Borrego.

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

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

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

  • Julian Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
  • Martinez Cemetery
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
  • Torres Martinez Reservation Cemetery
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
  • Toro Cemetery
    (26 miles [41.8 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.<4>

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

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

  • Ranchita
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
    • Ranchita is located in San Diego County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ranchita
  • Banner
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Banner is located in San Diego County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Banner
  • Julian
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
  • Wynola
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Wynola is located in San Diego County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wynola
  • Santa Ysabel
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
  • Cuyamaca ‑ Historic
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Cuyamaca is located in San Diego County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cuyamaca
  • Mesa Grande ‑ Historic
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
    • Mesa Grande is located in San Diego County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mesa Grande
  • Ballena
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Ballena is located in San Diego County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ballena
  • Oak Grove
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Oak Grove is located in San Diego County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oak Grove

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

Newspapers Published in Borrego ...

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 20 newspapers that have been published in the area around Borrego.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Borrego, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<2>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Borrego.

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 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 Borrego:

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>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- Borrego) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<3>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.
<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 Borrego, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.