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 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 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.
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 southwest 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 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 west 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.
Irwin is located in Merced 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 Merced County: Fresno, Madera, Mariposa, San Benito, Santa Clara & Stanislaus.
Below are the counties that are near Irwin. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Irwin:
- Merced County (The home county of Irwin)
- The following are listed by their distance from Irwin, with the one closest to Irwin listed first.
- Hilmar
(Less than 2 miles to the north)
- Delhi
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
- Stevinson
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
- Livingston
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
- Ballico
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
- Cressey
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
- Winton
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
- Atwater
(13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
- The Grove
(13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
- The Grove is located in Merced County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for The Grove
- Gustine
(13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
- Arundel ‑ Historic
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
- Arundel is located in Merced County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Arundel
- Fluhr
(15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
- Fluhr is located in Merced County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fluhr
- Amsterdam
(17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
- Amsterdam is located in Merced County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Amsterdam
- San Joaquin County
- The following are listed by their distance from Irwin, with the one closest to Irwin listed first.
- Escalon
(28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
- Ripon
(28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
- Ripon is located in San Joaquin County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ripon
- Population from the 2020 Census: 16,774 people
- Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Ripon <1>
- Vernalis
(28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
- Alba
(29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
- Alba is located in San Joaquin County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Alba
- Stanislaus County
- The following are listed by their distance from Irwin, with the one closest to Irwin listed first.
- Turlock
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
- Denair
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
- Newman
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
- Keyes
(11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
- Crows Landing
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
- Hughson
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
- Ceres
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
- Hickman
(16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
- Bret Harte
(16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
- Bret Harte is located in Stanislaus County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bret Harte
- Shackelford
(16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
- Shackelford is located in Stanislaus County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shackelford
- Patterson
(16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
- Empire
(17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
- Bystrom
(17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
- Bystrom is located in Stanislaus County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bystrom
For an expanded list of the communities that are closest to Irwin, see our County-by-County Page for Irwin.
Cemeteries Near Irwin ...
Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of 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.
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 Irwin - one of the links might be able to help.
If not found below, our Cemetery List for Irwin covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.
The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Irwin, with the one closest to Irwin listed first.
- South Hilmar Cemetery
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
- North Hilmar Cemetery
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
- Stevinson Sunnyside Cemetery
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
- Turlock Memorial Park
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
- Denair Cemetery
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the north)
- Hills Ferry Cemetery
(11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
- Winton Cemetery
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Winton Cemetery
- To give a relative sense of its location, the Winton Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located outside and to the southwest of Winton.
- Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #8453 <2>
- Lakewood Memorial Park
(15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
- Cottonwood Cemetery
(17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
- St. Stanislaus Cemetery
(18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
- Hopeton Cemetery
(18 miles [29 km] to the east)
- Patterson Cemetery District
(19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
- Continue List (19 more) ...
- Roberts Ferry Cemetery
(20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
- Calvary Cemetery
(21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Calvary Cemetery
- To give a relative sense of its location, the Calvary Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located in Merced.
- The Calvary Cemetery has also been known as:
- Calvary Catholic Cemetery
- Calvary Merced Cemetery District
- Be careful not to confuse this cemetery with another one that is also named Calvary Cemetery (located 56 miles to the north).
- Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #7873 <2>
- Grayson Cemetery
(21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
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 Irwin in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Irwin.
These communities are listed based on their distance from Irwin, with the one closest to Irwin listed first.
- Delhi
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
- Turlock
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
- Livingston
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
- Arena
(9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
- Arena is located in Merced County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Arena
- Newman
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
- Keyes
(11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
- Montpelier
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
- Montpelier is located in Stanislaus County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Montpelier
- Crows Landing
(12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
- Gustine
(13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
- Atwater
(13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
- Linora ‑ Historic
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the southwest)
- Linora is located in Merced County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Linora
- Ceres
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
- Continue List (13 more) ...
- Ingomar
(16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
- Ingomar is located in Merced County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ingomar
- Hickman
(16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
- Waterford
(17 miles [27.4 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 Irwin. See our List of 1890's Communities around Irwin.
Newspapers Published in 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 104 newspapers that have been published in the area around Irwin.
Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Irwin, 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 Irwin.
Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...
When we do our genealogical research, we start with 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 Irwin:
- Websites specific to California
- Pages specific to Merced County
- Genealogy information for nearby counties
- San Joaquin County
- Stanislaus County
- Cemetery Information and Directories for California
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' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Irwin) 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 Irwin, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy. |