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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 Danville (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 Danville. 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 Danville ...

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.

Prior to its current name of Danville, it was known as Inmanville.

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.

A Few Details for Danville ...

While it's still very early in our research, we found that:

  • It was incorporated on July 1, 1982.

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 southeast 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 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 east 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.

Danville is located in Contra Costa 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 Contra Costa County: Alameda, Marin, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Joaquin & Solano.

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

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

Cemeteries Near Danville ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Danville.

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

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

  • Lafayette Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Lafayette Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Lafayette Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Live Oak Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Live Oak Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Live Oak Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • St. Stephen Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Stephen Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Stephen Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Mt. Calvary Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Mt. Calvary Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Mt. Calvary Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Dublin Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Dublin Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Dublin Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Evergreen Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
  • Evergreen Mausoleum
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Evergreen Mausoleum
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Evergreen Mausoleum have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Lone Tree Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
  • Oakmont Memorial Park
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Oakmont Memorial Park
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Oakmont Memorial Park have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Oakmount Memorial Park
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
  • Queen of Haven Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Queen of Haven Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Queen of Haven Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Queen of Heaven Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Queen of Heaven Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Queen of Heaven Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Continue List   (73 more) ...
    • Home of Peace Cemetery
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Home of Peace Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Home of Peace Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • San Lorenzo Cemetery
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the San Lorenzo Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the San Lorenzo Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • All Saints Cemetery
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the All Saints Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the All Saints Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.

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>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Danville had a population of 85 people in 1895 with a post office and no railroad service. In 2020, Danville had a population of 44,883 people.

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

  • Alamo
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
  • San Ramon
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
  • Walnut Creek
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Lafayette
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Clayton
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
  • Seminary Park
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Seminary Park have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Seminary Park
    • Seminary Park is located in Alameda County
  • San Leandro
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
  • Melrose
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Melrose have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Melrose
    • Melrose is located in Alameda County
  • Concord
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
  • San Lorenzo
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Pacheco
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
  • Stewartville ‑ Historic
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Stewartville have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stewartville
    • Stewartville is located in Contra Costa County
  • Continue List   (19 more) ...
    • Somersville ‑ Historic
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Somersville have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Somersville
      • Somersville is located in Contra Costa County
    • Nortonville ‑ Historic
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Nortonville have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nortonville
      • Nortonville is located in Contra Costa County
    • East Oakland ‑ Historic
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Danville ...

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 165 newspapers that have been published in the area around Danville.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Danville. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Danville and those printed in the larger area surrounding Danville.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 16 miles [25.7 km]<6> of Danville.

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 helpful 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 Danville:

The official website for Danville: www.ci.danville.ca.us/

The official website for Contra Costa County: www.co.contra-costa.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 Danville, 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 from Point A (ie- Danville) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Danville. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 37.8216, Longitude: -121.9999    









 

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This page was last modified/updated: 28 Apr 2025