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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 Lairds Landing (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 Lairds Landing. 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 Lairds Landing ...

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.

  • A typical abbreviation for Lairds Landing: Lairds Lndg. (or less commonly used: Lairds Lndng.)
  • While the name of this community is Lairds Landing, be aware that it's the common practice of mapmakers to remove the apostrophe from possessive names<1>. So Lairds Landing may originally have been Laird's Landing.

    Sometimes the trailing 's' might be dropped altogether, in which case Lairds Landing might be written as Laird Landing.

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 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 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.

Lairds Landing is located in Marin 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 Marin County: Contra Costa, San Francisco & Sonoma.

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

  • Marin County     (The home county of Lairds Landing)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Lairds Landing, with the one closest to Lairds Landing listed first.
    • Marshall
      (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Nicks Cove
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
      • Nicks Cove is located in Marin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nicks Cove
    • Hamlet
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
      • Hamlet is located in Marin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hamlet
    • Inverness
      (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Millerton
      (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
      • Millerton is located in Marin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Millerton
    • Tomales
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Dillon Beach
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Point Reyes Station
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Olema
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Tocaloma
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Tocaloma is located in Marin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tocaloma
    • Five Brooks
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
      • Five Brooks is located in Marin County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Five Brooks
    • Nicasio
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Forest Knolls
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Napa County
    • Merazo
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
      • Merazo is located in Napa County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Merazo
  • Sonoma County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Lairds Landing, with the one closest to Lairds Landing listed first.
    • Valley Ford
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
    • Bloomfield
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
      • Bloomfield is located in Sonoma County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bloomfield
    • Bodega
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
    • Freestone
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
    • Stony Point
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
      • Stony Point is located in Sonoma County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stony Point
    • Bodega Bay
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Petaluma
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
    • Cotati
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Ely ‑ Historic
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Ely is located in Sonoma County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ely
    • Salmon Creek
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
      • Salmon Creek is located in Sonoma County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Salmon Creek
    • Penngrove
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Occidental
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
    • Carmet
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
      • Carmet is located in Sonoma County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Carmet

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

Cemeteries Near Lairds Landing ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Lairds Landing.

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 Lairds Landing - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • Tomales Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
  • Two Rock Presbyterian Church Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Olema Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Bloomfield Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bloomfield Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Bloomfield Cemetery is located outside and to the west of Bloomfield.
  • Bodega Bay Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Bodega Calvary Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bodega Calvary Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Bodega Calvary Cemetery is located outside and to the south of Bodega.
  • Taylors Grave Site
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
  • Liberty Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
  • Canfield Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
  • B'nai Israel Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Petaluma Calvary Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Cypress Hill Memorial Park
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Continue List   (39 more) ...

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 Lairds Landing in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Lairds Landing.

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

  • Marshall
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
  • Hamlet
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Hamlet is located in Marin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hamlet
  • Millerton
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Millerton is located in Marin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Millerton
  • Tomales
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
  • Point Reyes Station
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
  • Olema
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
  • Valley Ford
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
  • Tocaloma
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Tocaloma is located in Marin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tocaloma
  • Bloomfield
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
    • Bloomfield is located in Sonoma County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bloomfield
  • Taylorville ‑ Historic
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Taylorville is located in Marin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Taylorville
  • Nicasio
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
  • Freestone
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
  • Continue List   (15 more) ...
    • Stony Point
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
      • Stony Point is located in Sonoma County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stony Point
    • Petaluma
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
    • Ely ‑ Historic
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Ely is located in Sonoma County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ely

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

Newspapers Published in Lairds Landing ...

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 47 newspapers that have been published in the area around Lairds Landing.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Lairds Landing, there are papers which were published within 22 miles [35.4 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Lairds Landing.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we begin 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 Lairds Landing:

Footnotes ...

<1>It's generally believed that possessive apostrophes are removed to prevent confusion on maps where the apostrophe may be confused with a cartographic symbol. While this is generally true, it's not uncommon to find possessive apostrophes in administrative names (such as towns or counties).
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<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 Lairds Landing, 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- Lairds Landing) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.