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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 Chaney Ranch (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 Chaney Ranch. 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 Chaney Ranch ...

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.

For example, a typical abbreviation for Chaney Ranch: Chaney Rnch.

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 northeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals 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.

Chaney Ranch is located in Fresno 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 Fresno County: Inyo, Kings, Madera, Merced, Mono, San Benito & Tulare.

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

  • Fresno County     (The home county of Chaney Ranch)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Chaney Ranch, with the one closest to Chaney Ranch listed first.
    • Panoche Junction
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Panoche Junction
      • Panoche Junction is located in Fresno County
    • Mendota
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Benito
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Benito
      • Benito is located in Fresno County
    • Firebaugh
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Mercey Hot Springs
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mercey Hot Springs
      • Mercey Hot Springs is located in Fresno County
      • Former name for Mercey Hot Springs:
      • Mercy Hot Springs
    • Giffen Cantua Ranch
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Giffen Cantua Ranch
      • Giffen Cantua Ranch is located in Fresno County
    • Fresno City ‑ Historic
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Fresno City have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fresno City
      • Fresno City is located in Fresno County
    • Oro Loma ‑ Historic
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oro Loma
      • Oro Loma is located in Fresno County
    • Tranquillity
      (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
    • Cantua Creek
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
    • San Joaquin
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
    • Helm
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
    • Kerman
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
  • Madera County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Chaney Ranch, with the one closest to Chaney Ranch listed first.
    • Lincoln ‑ Historic
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Lincoln have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lincoln
      • Lincoln is located in Madera County
    • La Vina
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for La Vina
      • La Vina is located in Madera County
  • Merced County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Chaney Ranch, with the one closest to Chaney Ranch listed first.
    • South Dos Palos
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
    • Dos Palos
      (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
    • Santa Rita Park
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
    • Abbato ‑ Historic
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Abbato. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Abbato
      • Abbato is located in Merced County
  • San Benito County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Chaney Ranch, with the one closest to Chaney Ranch listed first.
    • Panoche
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Panoche
      • Panoche is located in San Benito County
    • New Idria ‑ Historic
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for New Idria
      • New Idria is located in San Benito County
      • New Idria has also been known as:
      • Idria
    • San Benito
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for San Benito
      • San Benito is located in San Benito County
    • Bitterwater
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bitterwater
      • Bitterwater is located in San Benito County

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

Cemeteries Near Chaney Ranch ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Chaney Ranch.

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

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

  • Cherry Hill Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Cherry Hill Cemetery
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for the Cherry Hill Cemetery. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #7899 <4>
  • Dos Palos Cemetery
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Dos Palos Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Dos Palos Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located outside and to the southwest of Dos Palos.
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #1431943 <4>
  • Anderson Akers Cemetery
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
  • Bitterwater Cemetery
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Bitterwater Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Bitterwater Cemetery is located outside and to the north of Bitterwater.
    • The Bitterwater Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Pine Hill Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #7858 <4>
  • Williams - Duckworth Cemetery
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
  • New Hope Cemetery
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)

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 Chaney Ranch in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Chaney Ranch.

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

  • Firebaugh
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
  • New Idria ‑ Historic
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for New Idria
    • New Idria is located in San Benito County
    • New Idria has also been known as:
    • Idria
  • Llanada
    (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Llanada have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Llanada
    • Llanada is located in San Benito County
  • Dos Palos
    (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
  • San Benito
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for San Benito
    • San Benito is located in San Benito County
  • La Vina
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for La Vina
    • La Vina is located in Madera County

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

Newspapers Published in Chaney Ranch ...

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 11 newspapers that have been published in the area around Chaney Ranch.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Chaney Ranch, there are papers which were published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<6>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Chaney Ranch.

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 Chaney Ranch:

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

The official website for Fresno County: www.co.fresno.ca.us/

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 Chaney Ranch, 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 obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Chaney Ranch) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Chaney Ranch. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 36.6558, Longitude: -120.5791       In this case, the coordinates for Chaney Ranch have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 28 Apr 2025