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Our Genealogy Helper for Fort Irwin ...

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 Fort Irwin (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 Fort Irwin. 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 Fort Irwin ...

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.

Fort Irwin was originally named Camp Irwin

  • A typical abbreviation for Fort Irwin: Ft. Irwin

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 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.

Fort Irwin is located in San Bernardino 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 San Bernardino County: La Paz (AZ), Mohave (AZ), Inyo, Kern, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside & Clark (NV).

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

  • San Bernardino County     (The home county of Fort Irwin)
    • Afton ‑ Historic
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Afton
      • Afton was located 23 miles [37 km]<1> to the southeast of Fort Irwin.
    • Yermo
    • Copper City
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Copper City
      • Copper City lies 28 miles [45.1 km]<1> to the west of Fort Irwin.
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Copper City have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to Google Maps centered on Copper City
    • Daggett
    • Newberry Springs
    • Barstow
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Barstow
      • Barstow lies 31 miles [49.9 km]<1> to the southwest of Fort Irwin.
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 23,581 people
      • Jump to Google Maps centered on Barstow
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Barstow<2>
    • Baker
    • Hinkley

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Fort Irwin ...

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 9 newspapers that have been published in the area around Fort Irwin.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Fort Irwin. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Fort Irwin and those printed in the larger area surrounding Fort Irwin.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 36 miles [57.9 km] of Fort Irwin.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we like to start with 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 Fort Irwin:

  • Of Special Interest ...
    • The GenDisasters website specializes in newspaper articles about tragedies and disasters. While it makes interesting reading all by itself, it should be of special interest to genealogists and family historians looking for people who were either affected by or directly involved in such tragedies.
    • At this time (Dec 2022), GenDisasters website is currently offline due to a hacker attack. Hopefully they will be back soon.
    • Stories from California

Cemeteries Near Fort Irwin ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Fort Irwin.

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

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

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

  • Calico ‑ Historic
    • While Calico was mentioned in the 1895 Rand McNally Atlas, it no longer exists
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Calico
    • Calico was located 23 miles [37 km]<1> to the southwest of Fort Irwin.
    • According to the 1895 Atlas, the estimated population in 1895: 316 people
    • From the 1895 Atlas, Calico had a post office and no railroad service
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Calico have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Daggett
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Daggett
    • Daggett lies 29 miles [46.7 km]<1> to the south of Fort Irwin.
    • According to the 1895 Rand McNally Atlas, the estimated population in 1895: 382 people
    • From the 1895 Atlas, Daggett had a post office and railroad service
    • Jump to Google Maps centered on Daggett
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Daggett<2>

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

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

The official website for San Bernardino County: www.sbcounty.gov/

The official website for State of California: https://www.ca.gov/

Footnotes ...

<1>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a '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- Fort Irwin) to Point B.If you need the driving distance (or directions), we recommend that you use one of the Mapping Services listed on our Map Page for Fort Irwin. Since we usually use Google Maps, we've provided the following link for your convenience: Google Map and Driving Directions starting from Fort IrwinOur distance measurements begin at a specific point in Fort Irwin. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 35.2619, Longitude: -116.6859    
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<3>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.
<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 Fort Irwin, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

 

 

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In closing, please keep in mind that we can not guarantee the accuracy or timeliness of the information on this website, so use with care. We encourage you to double-check the information that is critical to you.

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This page was last modified/updated: 22 May 2023