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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 Harmony Grove (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 Harmony Grove. 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 Harmony Grove ...

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 Harmony Grove: Harmony Grv.

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

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 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.

Harmony Grove is located in San Diego 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 San Diego County: Imperial, Orange & Riverside.

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

  • San Diego County     (The home county of Harmony Grove)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Harmony Grove, with the one closest to Harmony Grove listed first.
    • Escondido
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • San Marcos
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Lake San Marcos
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
      • Lake San Marcos is located in San Diego County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lake San Marcos
    • Rancho Bernardo
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Rancho Santa Fe
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Fairbanks Ranch
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Fairbanks Ranch is located in San Diego County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fairbanks Ranch
    • Hidden Meadows
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
      • Hidden Meadows is located in San Diego County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hidden Meadows
    • Lawrence Welk Resort Village
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
    • Vista
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Vista is located in San Diego County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Vista
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 100,636 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Vista <1>
    • Cardiff-by-the-Sea
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Encinitas
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Leucadia
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
    • Poway
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Poway is located in San Diego County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Poway
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 49,246 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Poway <1>
  • Riverside County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Harmony Grove, with the one closest to Harmony Grove listed first.
    • Rainbow Canyon Village
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
    • Lake Village
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
      • Lake Village is located in Riverside County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lake Village
    • Temecula
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
    • Aguanga
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)

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

Cemeteries Near Harmony Grove ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Harmony Grove.

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 Harmony Grove - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • San Marcos Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
  • Oak Hill Memorial Park
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
  • Olivenhain Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
  • Dearborn Memorial Park
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Carmel Valley Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Valley Center Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Eternal Hills Memorial Park
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
  • El Camino Memorial Park
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
  • San Luis Rey Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Miramar National Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
  • Memory Gardens Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
  • St. Bartholomew Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Continue List   (19 more) ...
    • Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial
      (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
    • Pauma Valley Cemetery
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
    • Indian Cemetery
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)

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>

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

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

  • San Marcos
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Escondido
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
  • Twin Oaks
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Twin Oaks is located in San Diego County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Twin Oaks
  • Buena
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Buena is located in San Diego County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Buena
  • Buena Vista
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Buena Vista is located in San Diego County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Buena Vista
  • Leucadia
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
  • Encinitas
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Vista
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Vista is located in San Diego County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Vista
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 100,636 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Vista <1>
  • Poway
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Poway is located in San Diego County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Poway
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 49,246 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Poway <1>
  • San Pasqual
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
    • San Pasqual is located in San Diego County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for San Pasqual
  • Valley Center
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Del Mar
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
  • Continue List   (15 more) ...
    • Carlsbad
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
    • Sorrento
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
      • Sorrento is located in San Diego County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sorrento
    • Bonsall
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)

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

Newspapers Published in Harmony Grove ...

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 93 newspapers that have been published in the area around Harmony Grove.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Harmony Grove, there are papers which were published within 23 miles [37 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Harmony Grove.

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 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 Harmony Grove:

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>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or 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- Harmony Grove) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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 Harmony Grove, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.