RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of California >> Shasta County >> Four Corners >> Genealogy HelperIndex...

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 Four Corners (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 Four Corners. 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 Four Corners ...

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 occur.

For example, a typical abbreviation for Four Corners: Four Cors.

You might be interested in other communities that are also named Four Corners. More information can be found on our Tidbits & Trivia Page for Four Corners.

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 and 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.

Four Corners 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 Four Corners. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Four Corners:

  • Shasta County     (The home county of Four Corners)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Four Corners, with the one closest to Four Corners listed first.
    • Johnson Park
      (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
      • Johnson Park is located in Shasta County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Johnson Park
    • Cassel
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Burney
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Cayton
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
      • Cayton is located in Shasta County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cayton
    • Hat Creek
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Fall River Mills
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Glenburn
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Glenburn is located in Shasta County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Glenburn
      • Former names for Glenburn:
      • Burgettville
      • Swasey
    • Hatchet Mountain ‑ Historic
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
      • Hatchet Mountain is located in Shasta County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hatchet Mountain
    • Dana
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
      • Dana is located in Shasta County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dana
    • Alfa ‑ Historic
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
      • Alfa is located in Shasta County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Alfa
    • McArthur
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Wengler
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
      • Wengler is located in Shasta County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wengler
  • Lassen County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Four Corners, with the one closest to Four Corners listed first.
    • Pittville
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Pittville is located in Lassen County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pittville
    • Nubieber
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Bieber
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
      • Bieber is located in Lassen County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bieber
    • Pumpkin Center
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Modoc County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Four Corners, with the one closest to Four Corners listed first.
    • Lookout Junction
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Lookout Junction is located in Modoc County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lookout Junction
    • Lookout
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Siskiyou County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Four Corners, with the one closest to Four Corners listed first.
    • Algoma ‑ Historic
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Algoma is located in Siskiyou County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Algoma
    • Slagger ‑ Historic
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
      • Slagger is located in Siskiyou County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Slagger
    • Hambone ‑ Historic
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
      • Hambone is located in Siskiyou County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hambone

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

Cemeteries Near Four Corners ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Four Corners.

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 Four Corners - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • Burney Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Burney Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Burney Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located in Burney.
    • Be careful not to confuse this cemetery with another one that is also named Burney Cemetery (located 68 miles to the north).
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #7866 <2>
  • Burney Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Burney Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Burney Cemetery is located in Burney.
    • The Burney Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Burney District Cemetery
    • Be careful not to confuse this cemetery with another one that is also named Burney Cemetery (located 69 miles to the north).
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2362619 <2>
  • Burney Falls Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
  • Pioneer Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
  • Fall River Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Dana Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
  • Eastman Ranch Indian Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
  • Pine Grove Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Cove Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
  • Halcumb Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
  • Day Cemetery
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
  • Hillside Cemetery
    (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
  • Continue List   (8 more) ...
    • Fern Pioneer Cemetery
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Whitmore Evangelical Cemetery
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Whitmore Cemetery
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)

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

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

  • Cassel
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
  • Cayton
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
    • Cayton is located in Shasta County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cayton
  • Fall River Mills
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Alfa ‑ Historic
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Alfa is located in Shasta County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Alfa
  • Dana
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
    • Dana is located in Shasta County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dana
  • Pittville
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Pittville is located in Lassen County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pittville
  • Montgomery Creek
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
  • Round Mountain
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Bieber
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Bieber is located in Lassen County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bieber
  • Oak Run
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)

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

Newspapers Published in Four Corners ...

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 16 newspapers that have been published in the area around Four Corners.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Four Corners, there are papers which were published within 27 miles [43.5 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Four Corners.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first visit the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These professional and volunteer 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 Four Corners:

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 Four Corners, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<4>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Four Corners) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.