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A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
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Our Genealogy Helper

Introduction ...

So far, we found very little information about Branson. The little that we've found leads us believe that the community is historic.<1>

We've added Branson to our Gazetteer with the hope that we can develop more information. If you can help us with Branson, please Contact Us.


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 Branson (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 Branson. 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 northeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals and doctors were in the next county to the east. 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 east 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.

Although our information shows that the community of Branson is historic, it would have been located within present day 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 Branson. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Branson:

  • San Diego County     (The home county of Branson)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Branson, with the one closest to Branson listed first.
    • Julian
      (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Santa Ysabel
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Banner
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
      • Banner is located in San Diego County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Banner
    • Cuyamaca ‑ Historic
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Cuyamaca is located in San Diego County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cuyamaca
    • Stonewall ‑ Historic
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
      • Stonewall is located in San Diego County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stonewall
    • Ranchita
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Ranchita is located in San Diego County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ranchita
    • San Diego Country Estates
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Mesa Grande ‑ Historic
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Mesa Grande is located in San Diego County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mesa Grande
    • El Capitan ‑ Historic
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
      • El Capitan is located in San Diego County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for El Capitan
    • Warner Springs
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
    • Descanso
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
    • Ramona
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
    • Guatay
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
      • Guatay is located in San Diego County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Guatay
  • Riverside County

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

Cemeteries Near Branson ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Branson.

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

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

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

  • Julian Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
  • Memory Gardens Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
  • Indian Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
  • St. Bartholomew Cemetery
    (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
  • Dearborn Memorial Park
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
  • Oak Hill Memorial Park
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
  • El Cajon Cemetery
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Valley Center Cemetery
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Pauma Valley Cemetery
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
  • St. Francis Xavier Cemetery
    (29 miles [46.7 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.

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

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

  • Julian
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
  • Wynola
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Wynola is located in San Diego County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wynola
  • Santa Ysabel
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Banner
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Banner is located in San Diego County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Banner
  • Cuyamaca ‑ Historic
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Cuyamaca is located in San Diego County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cuyamaca
  • Ballena
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Ballena is located in San Diego County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ballena
  • Ranchita
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Ranchita is located in San Diego County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ranchita
  • Mesa Grande ‑ Historic
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Mesa Grande is located in San Diego County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mesa Grande
  • El Capitan ‑ Historic
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
    • El Capitan is located in San Diego County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for El Capitan
  • Descanso
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
  • Alpine
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
  • San Pasqual
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
    • San Pasqual is located in San Diego County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for San Pasqual
  • Continue List   (10 more) ...
    • Riverview
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
      • Riverview is located in San Diego County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Riverview
    • Lakeside
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
    • Oak Grove
      (23 miles [37 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 Branson. See our List of 1890's Communities around Branson.

Newspapers Published in Branson ...

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 85 newspapers that have been published in the area around Branson.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Branson, there are papers which were published within 28 miles [45.1 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Branson.

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 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 Branson:

Footnotes ...

<1>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 Branson, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<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>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Branson) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.