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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 Greenfield (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 Greenfield. 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 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.

Greenfield is located in Monterey 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 Monterey County: Fresno, Kings, San Benito, San Luis Obispo & Santa Cruz.

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

  • Monterey County     (The home county of Greenfield)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Greenfield, with the one closest to Greenfield listed first.
    • Soledad
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
    • King City
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Gonzales
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
    • San Lucas
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
    • Chualar
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Jolon
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
    • Lucia
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lucia
      • Lucia is located in Monterey County
    • Lockwood
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
    • Martinus Corner
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Martinus Corner
      • Martinus Corner is located in Monterey County
    • San Ardo
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Carmel Valley Village
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
    • Posts
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Posts
      • Posts is located in Monterey County
    • Spreckels
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
  • San Benito County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Greenfield, with the one closest to Greenfield listed first.
    • Bitterwater
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bitterwater
      • Bitterwater is located in San Benito County
    • Pinnacles
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Pinnacles have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pinnacles
      • Pinnacles is located in San Benito County
    • San Benito
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for San Benito
      • San Benito is located in San Benito County
    • Paicines
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
    • Panoche
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Panoche
      • Panoche is located in San Benito County

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

Newspapers Published in Greenfield ...

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 15 newspapers that have been published in the area around Greenfield.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Greenfield, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Greenfield.

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 Greenfield:

Cemeteries Near Greenfield ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Greenfield.

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

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

  • Greenfield Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Greenfield Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Greenfield Cemetery
  • Soledad Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Soledad Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Soledad Cemetery
  • King City Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the King City Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the King City Cemetery
  • Bitterwater Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Bitterwater Cemetery is located outside and to the north of Bitterwater.
    • The Bitterwater Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Pine Hill Cemetery
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Bitterwater Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #7858 <4>
  • Gonzales Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
  • Willow Creek Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
  • Cherry Hill Cemetery
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for the Cherry Hill Cemetery. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<5>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Cherry Hill Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #7899 <4>
  • Paicines Cemetery
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
  • Lockwood Cemetery
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Lockwood Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Lockwood Cemetery
  • Clayton Cemetery
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)

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.<6>

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

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

  • Metz
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Metz have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Metz
    • Metz is located in Monterey County
  • Soledad
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
  • King City
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Bitterwater
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bitterwater
    • Bitterwater is located in San Benito County
  • San Benito
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for San Benito
    • San Benito is located in San Benito County
  • Gonzales
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Lonoak
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Lonoak have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lonoak
    • Lonoak is located in Monterey County
  • San Lucas
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
  • Chualar
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
  • Jolon
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
  • Llanada
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Llanada have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Llanada
    • Llanada is located in San Benito County
  • Spence
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Spence have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spence
    • Spence is located in Monterey County
  • Continue List   (4 more) ...

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

The official website for Greenfield: www.ci.greenfield.ca.us/

The official website for Monterey County: www.co.monterey.ca.us/

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 things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Greenfield) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Greenfield. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 36.3224, Longitude: -121.2447    
<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>An 'estimated' location is one where we have been given GPS coordinates, but are unable to verify the accuracy of those coordinates. That said, we have some confidence that we have placed the marker near the actual location. A typical reason for being unable to verify a location is that it might be on private property or maybe historic and gone without an obvious trace.
<6>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 Greenfield, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024