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The Commemorative Quarter for California





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 Brea (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 Brea. 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 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.

Brea is located in Orange 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 Orange County: Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino & San Diego.

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

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

Cemeteries Near Brea ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Brea.

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

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

  • Loma Vista Memorial Park
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Loma Vista Memorial Park
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Loma Vista Memorial Park have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Memory Garden Memorial Park
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Memory Garden Memorial Park
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Memory Garden Memorial Park have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Queen of Heaven Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
  • Anaheim Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
  • Holy Cross Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Holy Cross Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Holy Cross Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Yorba Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Yorba Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Yorba Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Melrose Abbey Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Melrose Abbey Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Melrose Abbey Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Olive Grove Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Olive Grove Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Olive Grove Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Rose Hills Memorial Park
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Mt. Olive Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Mt. Olive Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Mt. Olive Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Forest Lawn Memorial Park
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Forest Lawn Memorial Park
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Forest Lawn Memorial Park have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Magnolia Memorial Park
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Magnolia Memorial Park
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Magnolia Memorial Park have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Continue List   (76 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.<5>

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

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

  • Fullerton
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Brookhurst
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Brookhurst have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brookhurst
    • Brookhurst is located in Orange County
  • Anaheim
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
  • Northam ‑ Historic
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Northam have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Northam
    • Northam is located in Orange County
  • Buena Park
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Almond
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Almond have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Almond
    • Almond is located in Orange County
  • Olive
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Olive have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Olive
    • Olive is located in Orange County
  • Yorba
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Yorba have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Yorba
    • Yorba is located in Orange County
  • Miraflores
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Miraflores have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Miraflores
    • Miraflores is located in Orange County
  • Marlboro
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Marlboro have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Marlboro
    • Marlboro is located in Orange County
  • Carmenita
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Carmenita. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Carmenita
    • Carmenita is located in Los Angeles County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Carmenita
    • From Brea to Carmenita
  • Wanda ‑ Historic
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Wanda have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wanda
    • Wanda is located in Orange County
  • Continue List   (13 more) ...

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Brea ...

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 64 newspapers that have been published in the area around Brea.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Brea. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Brea and those printed in the larger area surrounding Brea.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 12 miles [19.3 km]<6> of Brea.

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 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 Brea:

The official website for Brea: www.ci.brea.ca.us/

The official website for Orange County: www.oc.ca.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>An 'estimated' location is one where we have been given GPS coordinates, but are unable to verify the accuracy of those coordinates. That said, we have some confidence that we have placed the marker near the actual location. A typical reason for being unable to verify a location is that it might be on private property or maybe historic and gone without an obvious trace.
<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.
<5>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 Brea, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<6>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 drawn from Point A (ie- Brea) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Brea. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 33.9166, Longitude: -117.9004    









 

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This page was last modified/updated: 28 Apr 2025