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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 Dirigo (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 Dirigo. 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 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.

Dirigo is located in Shasta 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 Shasta County: Lassen, Modoc, Plumas, Siskiyou, Tehama & Trinity.

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

  • Shasta County     (The home county of Dirigo)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Dirigo, with the one closest to Dirigo listed first.
    • Castella
      (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
    • Castle Crags ‑ Historic
      (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
      • Castle Crags is located in Shasta County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Castle Crags
    • Sweetbriar
      (Less than 2 miles to the south)
      • Sweetbriar is located in Shasta County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sweetbriar
    • Conant ‑ Historic
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
      • Conant is located in Shasta County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Conant
    • Flume ‑ Historic
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
      • Flume is located in Shasta County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Flume
    • Sims
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Sims is located in Shasta County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sims
    • Fisher ‑ Historic
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
      • Fisher is located in Shasta County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fisher
    • Gibson ‑ Historic
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Gibson is located in Shasta County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gibson
    • Pollard Flat
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Pollard Flat is located in Shasta County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pollard Flat
    • Lamoine
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
      • Lamoine is located in Shasta County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lamoine
      • Former names for Lamoine:
      • Slate Creek
      • Slatonis
    • Delta
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
      • Delta is located in Shasta County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Delta
      • Former name for Delta:
      • Bayles
    • Vollmers
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Vollmers is located in Shasta County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Vollmers
  • Siskiyou County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Dirigo, with the one closest to Dirigo listed first.
    • Dunsmuir
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Shasta Springs
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
      • Shasta Springs is located in Siskiyou County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shasta Springs
    • Cantara ‑ Historic
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
      • Cantara is located in Siskiyou County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cantara
    • Mount Shasta
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
    • McCloud
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Weed
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
      • Weed is located in Siskiyou County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Weed
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,668 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Weed <1>
    • Carrick
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the north)
      • Carrick is located in Siskiyou County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Carrick
    • Edgewood
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
      • Edgewood is located in Siskiyou County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Edgewood
    • Algoma ‑ Historic
      (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
      • Algoma is located in Siskiyou County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Algoma
    • Callahan
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Gazelle
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Cougar ‑ Historic
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
      • Cougar is located in Siskiyou County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cougar
  • Trinity County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Dirigo, with the one closest to Dirigo listed first.
    • Carrville
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
      • Carrville is located in Trinity County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Carrville
    • Trinity Center
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)

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

Cemeteries Near Dirigo ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Dirigo.

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

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

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

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.<3>

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

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

  • Dunsmuir
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
  • Sims
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Sims is located in Shasta County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sims
  • Mott
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • Mott is located in Siskiyou County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mott
  • Cantara ‑ Historic
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
    • Cantara is located in Siskiyou County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cantara
  • Gibson ‑ Historic
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Gibson is located in Shasta County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gibson
  • McCloud
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Lamoine
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Lamoine is located in Shasta County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lamoine
    • Former names for Lamoine:
    • Slate Creek
    • Slatonis
  • Delta
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
    • Delta is located in Shasta County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Delta
    • Former name for Delta:
    • Bayles
  • Igerna
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
    • Igerna is located in Siskiyou County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Igerna
  • Carrville
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
    • Carrville is located in Trinity County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Carrville
  • Edgewood
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
    • Edgewood is located in Siskiyou County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Edgewood
  • Trinity Center
    (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
  • Continue List   (8 more) ...
    • Elmore ‑ Historic
      (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
      • Elmore is located in Shasta County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elmore
    • Mabel ‑ Historic
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
      • Mabel is located in Shasta County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mabel
    • Baird ‑ Historic
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
      • Baird is located in Shasta County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Baird

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

Newspapers Published in Dirigo ...

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 21 newspapers that have been published in the area around Dirigo.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Dirigo, 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 Dirigo.

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 Dirigo:

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 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.
<3>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 Dirigo, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<4>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- Dirigo) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.