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 Patera (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 Patera. 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 southeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals and 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.
La Patera is located in Santa Barbara 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 Santa Barbara County: Kern, San Luis Obispo & Ventura.
Below are the counties that are near La Patera. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to La Patera:
- Santa Barbara County (The home county of La Patera)
- The following are listed by their distance from La Patera, with the one closest to La Patera listed first.
- Goleta
(Less than 2 miles to the east)
- Isla Vista
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
- Hope Ranch
(4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
- Hope Ranch is located in Santa Barbara County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hope Ranch
- Naples ‑ Historic
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
- Naples is located in Santa Barbara County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Naples
- Mission Canyon
(7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
- Mission Canyon is located in Santa Barbara County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mission Canyon
- Santa Barbara
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
- Montecito
(11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
- Capitan
(11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
- Capitan is located in Santa Barbara County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Capitan
- Summerland
(13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
- Cachuma Village
(13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
- Cachuma Village is located in Santa Barbara County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cachuma Village
- Ortega ‑ Historic
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
- Ortega is located in Santa Barbara County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ortega
- Toro Canyon
(15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
- Toro Canyon is located in Santa Barbara County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Toro Canyon
- Franciscan Village
(17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
- Franciscan Village is located in Santa Barbara County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Franciscan Village
- Ventura County
- The following are listed by their distance from La Patera, with the one closest to La Patera listed first.
- Sea Cliff
(25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
- Sea Cliff is located in Ventura County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sea Cliff
- Oak View
(30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
For an expanded list of the communities that are closest to La Patera, see our County-by-County Page for La Patera.
Cemeteries Near La Patera ...
Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of La Patera.
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 Patera - one of the links might be able to help.
If not found below, our Cemetery List for La Patera covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.
The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from La Patera, with the one closest to La Patera listed first.
- Goleta Cemetery
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
- La Patera Catholic Cemetery
(3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
- Calvary Cemetery
(5 miles [8 km] to the east)
- Santa Barbara Cemetery
(10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
- Carpinteria Cemetery
(17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
- Oak Hill Cemetery
(20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oak Hill Cemetery
- 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 Find-A-Grave: FG ID #8210 <2>
- Solvang Cemetery
(20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
- St. Marks in the Valley Episcopal Church Memorial Garden
(22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for St. Marks in the Valley Episcopal Church Memorial Garden
- To give a relative sense of its location, the St. Marks in the Valley Episcopal Church Memorial Garden is located in Los Olivos.
- The St. Marks in the Valley Episcopal Church Memorial Garden has also been known as:
- Episcopal Church Memorial Garden
- St. Marks in the Valley Episcopal Church Cemetery
- Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2336947 <2>
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.<3>
The Rand McNally Atlas shows that in 1895, La Patera had railroad service and no post office.
These communities are listed based on their distance from La Patera, with the one closest to La Patera listed first.
- Goleta
(Less than 2 miles to the east)
- Ellwood
(2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
- Ellwood is located in Santa Barbara County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ellwood
- Naples ‑ Historic
(6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
- Naples is located in Santa Barbara County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Naples
- Santa Barbara
(8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
- Summerland
(13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
- Ortega ‑ Historic
(14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
- Ortega is located in Santa Barbara County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ortega
- Serena
(16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
- Serena is located in Santa Barbara County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Serena
- Carpinteria
(18 miles [29 km] to the east)
- Santa Ynez
(18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
- Ballard
(20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
- Nojoqui
(20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
- Nojoqui is located in Santa Barbara County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nojoqui
- Los Olivos
(22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
- Sea Cliff
(25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
- Sea Cliff is located in Ventura County
- Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sea Cliff
We've also created an expanded list of communities that existed in the 1890's and were located in the area around La Patera. See our List of 1890's Communities around La Patera.
Newspapers Published in La Patera ...
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 77 newspapers that have been published in the area around La Patera.
Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of La Patera, there are papers which were published within 20 miles [32.2 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for La Patera.
Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...
When we do our genealogical research, we first turn to the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These helpful 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 Patera:
- Websites specific to California
- Pages specific to Santa Barbara County
- Genealogy information for nearby counties
- 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> | 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 Patera, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy. |
| <4> | 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 from Point A (ie- La Patera) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'. |