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A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
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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 La Jolla Ranch (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 La Jolla Ranch. 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 La Jolla Ranch ...

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 La Jolla Ranch: La Jolla Rnch.

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.

La Jolla Ranch is located in Fresno 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 Fresno County: Inyo, Kings, Madera, Merced, Mono, San Benito & Tulare.

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

  • Fresno County     (The home county of La Jolla Ranch)
    • The following are listed by their distance from La Jolla Ranch, with the one closest to La Jolla Ranch listed first.
    • Benito
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Benito is located in Fresno County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Benito
    • Mendota
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
    • Firebaugh
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Oro Loma ‑ Historic
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Oro Loma is located in Fresno County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oro Loma
    • Panoche Junction
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Panoche Junction is located in Fresno County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Panoche Junction
    • Mercey Hot Springs
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
      • Mercey Hot Springs is located in Fresno County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mercey Hot Springs
      • Former name for Mercey Hot Springs:
      • Mercy Hot Springs
    • Fresno City ‑ Historic
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
      • Fresno City is located in Fresno County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fresno City
    • Tranquillity
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
    • Giffen Cantua Ranch
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Giffen Cantua Ranch is located in Fresno County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Giffen Cantua Ranch
    • Cantua Creek
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
    • San Joaquin
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
    • Kerman
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
  • Madera County
    • The following are listed by their distance from La Jolla Ranch, with the one closest to La Jolla Ranch listed first.
    • Lincoln ‑ Historic
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
      • Lincoln is located in Madera County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lincoln
    • La Vina
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
      • La Vina is located in Madera County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for La Vina
  • Merced County
    • The following are listed by their distance from La Jolla Ranch, with the one closest to La Jolla Ranch listed first.
    • South Dos Palos
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
    • Dos Palos
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
    • Santa Rita Park
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
    • Abbato ‑ Historic
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
      • Abbato is located in Merced County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Abbato
    • Los Banos
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
    • El Nido
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
    • Trent
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
      • Trent is located in Merced County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Trent
  • San Benito County
    • The following are listed by their distance from La Jolla Ranch, with the one closest to La Jolla Ranch listed first.
    • Panoche
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Panoche is located in San Benito County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Panoche
    • New Idria ‑ Historic
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
      • New Idria is located in San Benito County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for New Idria
      • New Idria has also been known as:
      • Idria
    • San Benito
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
      • San Benito is located in San Benito County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for San Benito

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

Cemeteries Near La Jolla Ranch ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of La Jolla Ranch.

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 La Jolla Ranch - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • Dos Palos Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
  • Cherry Hill Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
  • Calvary Cemetery
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Calvary Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Calvary Cemetery is located in Los Banos.
    • Be careful not to confuse this cemetery with another one that is also named Calvary Cemetery (located 87 miles to the north).
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #7876 <2>
  • Los Banos Cemetery
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Los Banos Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Los Banos Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located in Los Banos.
    • The Los Banos Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Los Banos District Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #8133 <2>
  • New Hope Cemetery
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Bethany 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.<4>

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

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

  • Firebaugh
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Dos Palos
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
  • Llanada
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Llanada is located in San Benito County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Llanada
  • New Idria ‑ Historic
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
    • New Idria is located in San Benito County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for New Idria
    • New Idria has also been known as:
    • Idria
  • Los Banos
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
  • La Vina
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
    • La Vina is located in Madera County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for La Vina

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

Newspapers Published in La Jolla Ranch ...

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 14 newspapers that have been published in the area around La Jolla Ranch.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of La Jolla Ranch, 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 La Jolla Ranch.

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 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 La Jolla Ranch:

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 obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- La Jolla Ranch) 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 La Jolla Ranch, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.