RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of California >> Santa Barbara County >> Goleta >> Genealogy HelperIndex...










Learn About
The Commemorative
Quarter for
California

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 Goleta (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 Goleta. 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 northwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors and hospitals were in the next county to the west. 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 west 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.

Goleta is located in Santa Barbara 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 Santa Barbara County: Kern, San Luis Obispo & Ventura.

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

  • Santa Barbara County     (The home county of Goleta)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Goleta, with the one closest to Goleta listed first.
    • Isla Vista
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Hope Ranch
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hope Ranch
      • Hope Ranch is located in Santa Barbara County
    • Mission Canyon
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Mission Canyon have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mission Canyon
      • Mission Canyon is located in Santa Barbara County
    • Santa Barbara
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
    • Naples ‑ Historic
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Naples
      • Naples is located in Santa Barbara County
    • Montecito
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
    • Capitan
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Capitan
      • Capitan is located in Santa Barbara County
    • Summerland
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
    • Cachuma Village
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Cachuma Village have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cachuma Village
      • Cachuma Village is located in Santa Barbara County
    • Ortega ‑ Historic
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Ortega have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ortega
      • Ortega is located in Santa Barbara County
    • Toro Canyon
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Toro Canyon
      • Toro Canyon is located in Santa Barbara County
    • Franciscan Village
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Franciscan Village have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Franciscan Village
      • Franciscan Village is located in Santa Barbara County
    • Old Town
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Old Town have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Old Town
      • Old Town is located in Santa Barbara County
  • Ventura County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Goleta, with the one closest to Goleta listed first.
    • Sea Cliff
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Sea Cliff have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sea Cliff
      • Sea Cliff is located in Ventura County
    • Oak View
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Goleta ...

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 92 newspapers that have been published in the area around Goleta.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Goleta. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Goleta and those printed in the larger area surrounding Goleta.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 20 miles [32.2 km]<3> of Goleta.

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 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 Goleta:

Cemeteries Near Goleta ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Goleta.

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

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

  • Goleta Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Goleta Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Goleta Cemetery
  • La Patera Catholic Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the La Patera Catholic Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the La Patera Catholic Cemetery
  • Calvary Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
  • Santa Barbara Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
  • Carpinteria Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
  • Oak Hill Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Oak Hill Cemetery is located in Ballard.
    • The Oak Hill Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Oak Hill Memorial Cemetery
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Oak Hill Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #8210 <4>
  • Solvang Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Solvang Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Solvang Cemetery

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 Goleta had a population of 205 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2015, Goleta had a population of 30,944 people.

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

  • La Patera
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for La Patera have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for La Patera
    • La Patera is located in Santa Barbara County
  • Ellwood
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Ellwood have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ellwood
    • Ellwood is located in Santa Barbara County
  • Santa Barbara
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
  • Naples ‑ Historic
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Naples
    • Naples is located in Santa Barbara County
  • Summerland
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
  • Ortega ‑ Historic
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Ortega have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ortega
    • Ortega is located in Santa Barbara County
  • Serena
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Serena have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Serena
    • Serena is located in Santa Barbara County
  • Carpinteria
    (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
  • Santa Ynez
    (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
  • Nojoqui
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Nojoqui have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nojoqui
    • Nojoqui is located in Santa Barbara County
  • Ballard
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Los Olivos
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
  • Sea Cliff
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Sea Cliff have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sea Cliff
    • Sea Cliff is located in Ventura County

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

The official website for Goleta: www.cityofgoleta.org/

The official website for Santa Barbara County: www.countyofsb.org/

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>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- Goleta) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Goleta. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 34.4398, Longitude: -119.8306    
<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 Goleta, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

Copyright 2024
All Rights Reserved

Thank you for visiting our website.

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.

If you've found an error or have additional information that you would like to share, please don't hesitate to write: Click here to contact us.

This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024