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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 Laguna (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 Laguna. 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 northwest 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 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 west 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.

Laguna is located in San Luis Obispo 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 Luis Obispo County: Kern, Kings, Monterey, Santa Barbara & Ventura.

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

  • San Luis Obispo County     (The home county of Laguna)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Laguna, with the one closest to Laguna listed first.
    • San Luis Obispo
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
    • San Miguelito
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
      • San Miguelito is located in San Luis Obispo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for San Miguelito
    • Avila Beach
      (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Shell Beach
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
    • Port San Luis
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Port San Luis is located in San Luis Obispo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Port San Luis
    • Reeds ‑ Historic
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Reeds is located in San Luis Obispo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Reeds
    • Los Osos
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Pismo Beach
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
    • Santa Margarita
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Fairoaks
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Fairoaks is located in San Luis Obispo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fairoaks
    • Grover Beach
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Arroyo Grande
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
  • San Mateo County
  • Santa Barbara County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Laguna, with the one closest to Laguna listed first.
    • Guadalupe
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
    • Betteravia
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Betteravia is located in Santa Barbara County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Betteravia
    • Santa Maria
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Casmalia
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
    • Orcutt
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)

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

Cemeteries Near Laguna ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Laguna.

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 Laguna - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • San Luis Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for San Luis Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the San Luis Cemetery is located outside and to the southwest of San Luis Obispo.
  • Sutcliffe Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sutcliffe Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Sutcliffe Cemetery is located outside and to the southwest of San Luis Obispo.
  • Old Mission Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
  • Los Osos Valley Memorial Park
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Quintana Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
  • Halcyon Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Santa Margarita Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Atascadero Pine Mtn. Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Atascadero Pine Mtn. Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Atascadero Pine Mtn. Cemetery is located in Atascadero.
    • The Atascadero Pine Mtn. Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Atascadero Cemetery
    • Pine Mtn. Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2154678 <2>
  • Cayucos - Morro Bay District Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Continue List   (6 more) ...
    • Guadalupe Cemetery
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
    • Templeton Cemetery
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
    • Paso Robles District Cemetery
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
    • Santa Maria Cemetery
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Adelaida Cemetery
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)

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>

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

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

  • San Luis Obispo
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
  • Miles
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • Miles is located in San Luis Obispo County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Miles
  • Edna
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Edna is located in San Luis Obispo County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Edna
  • Reeds ‑ Historic
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Reeds is located in San Luis Obispo County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Reeds
  • Verde
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Verde is located in San Luis Obispo County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Verde
  • Santa Margarita
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Arroyo Grande
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Dove ‑ Historic
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
    • Dove is located in San Luis Obispo County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dove
  • Los Berros
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Los Berros is located in San Luis Obispo County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Los Berros
  • Summit ‑ Historic
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Summit is located in San Luis Obispo County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Summit
  • Musick ‑ Historic
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
    • Musick is located in San Luis Obispo County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Musick
  • Asuncion
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
    • Asuncion is located in San Luis Obispo County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Asuncion
  • Continue List   (12 more) ...
    • Cayucos
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Pozo
      (18 miles [29 km] to the east)
      • Pozo is located in San Luis Obispo County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pozo
    • Nipomo
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)

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

Newspapers Published in Laguna ...

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 105 newspapers that have been published in the area around Laguna.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Laguna, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Laguna.

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 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 Laguna:

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 Laguna, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<4>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 from Point A (ie- Laguna) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.