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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 El Monte (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 El Monte. 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 southeast 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 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.

El Monte is located in Los Angeles 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 Los Angeles County: Kern, Orange, San Bernardino & Ventura.

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

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

Cemeteries Near El Monte ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of El Monte.

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

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

  • Savannah Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Savannah Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Savannah Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Rose Hills Memorial Park
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
  • Resurrection Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Resurrection Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Resurrection Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Live Oak Memorial Park
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
  • Mt. Olive Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • 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.
  • San Gabriel Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
  • Sierra Madre Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Sierra Madre Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Sierra Madre Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Chinese Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Chinese Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Chinese Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Serbian Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Serbian Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Serbian Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Calvary Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
  • Russian Molokan Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Russian Molokan Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Russian Molokan Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Memorial Park
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Memorial Park
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Memorial Park have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Continue List   (80 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.<4>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that El Monte had a population of 159 people in 1895 with a post office and no railroad service. In 2020, El Monte had a population of 112,344 people.

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

  • Savannah ‑ Historic
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Savannah have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Savannah
    • Savannah is located in Los Angeles County
  • East San Gabriel
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for East San Gabriel have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for East San Gabriel
    • East San Gabriel is located in Los Angeles County
  • San Gabriel
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
  • Santa Anita
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
  • Duarte
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
  • Monrovia
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
  • Alhambra
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
  • Sierra Madre
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
  • Whittier
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
  • Chapman
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Chapman have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chapman
    • Chapman is located in Los Angeles County
  • Lamanda Park
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
  • East Pasadena
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for East Pasadena have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for East Pasadena
    • East Pasadena is located in Los Angeles County
  • Continue List   (15 more) ...
    • Los Nietos
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Los Nietos have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Los Nietos
      • Los Nietos is located in Los Angeles County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Los Nietos <1>
    • South Pasadena
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Shorb
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Shorb have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shorb
      • Shorb is located in Los Angeles County

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of El Monte ...

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 82 newspapers that have been published in the area around El Monte.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of El Monte. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of El Monte and those printed in the larger area surrounding El Monte.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 11 miles [17.7 km]<5> of El Monte.

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 El Monte:

The official website for El Monte: www.ci.el-monte.ca.us/

The official website for Los Angeles County: www.lacounty.info/

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>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>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 El Monte, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<5>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- El Monte) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in El Monte. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 34.0689, Longitude: -118.0281    









 

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This page was last modified/updated: 28 Apr 2025