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Our Genealogy Helper

Introduction ...

So far, we found very little information about Little Lake. The little that we've found leads us believe that the community is historic.<1>

We've added Little Lake to our Gazetteer with the hope that we can develop more information. If you can help us with Little Lake, please Contact Us.

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 Little Lake (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 Little Lake. 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 Little Lake ...

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 have occurred.

Prior to its current name of Little Lake, it was known as Little Owens Lake.

  • A typical abbreviation for Little Lake: Little Lk.

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 northwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors 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.

Although our information shows that the community of Little Lake is historic, it would have been located within present day Inyo County.

To see how the shape of California's counties have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Inyo County: Fresno, Kern, Mono, San Bernardino, Tulare, Clark (NV), Esmeralda (NV) & Nye (NV).

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

  • Inyo County     (The home county of Little Lake)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Little Lake, with the one closest to Little Lake listed first.
    • Narka ‑ Historic
      (Less than 2 miles to the south)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Narka. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Narka
      • Narka is located in Inyo County
    • Coso ‑ Historic
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Coso have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Coso
      • Coso is located in Inyo County
    • Coso Junction
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Coso Junction
      • Coso Junction is located in Inyo County
    • Sykes ‑ Historic
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sykes
      • Sykes is located in Inyo County
    • Linnie ‑ Historic
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Linnie have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Linnie
      • Linnie is located in Inyo County
    • Pearsonville
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pearsonville
      • Pearsonville is located in Inyo County
    • Dunmovin
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dunmovin
      • Dunmovin is located in Inyo County
      • Dunmovin has also been known as:
      • Dun Movin
      • Dun Moving
      • Dunmoving
    • Talus ‑ Historic
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Talus
      • Talus is located in Inyo County
    • Haiwee
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Haiwee have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Haiwee
      • Haiwee is located in Inyo County
      • Haiwee has also been known as:
      • Enchanted Lake Village
    • Grant
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grant
      • Grant is located in Inyo County
    • Junction Ranch
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Junction Ranch
      • Junction Ranch is located in Inyo County
    • Olancha
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
  • Kern County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Little Lake, with the one closest to Little Lake listed first.
    • Inyokern
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
    • China Lake Acres
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for China Lake Acres have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for China Lake Acres
      • China Lake Acres is located in Kern County
    • Freeman ‑ Historic
      (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Freeman
      • Freeman is located in Kern County
    • China Lake
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
    • Onyx
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Ridgecrest
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Armistead
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Armistead
      • Armistead is located in Kern County
    • Weldon
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Bella Vista
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bella Vista
      • Bella Vista is located in Kern County
  • San Bernardino County
    • Searles Valley
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Searles Valley have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Searles Valley
      • Searles Valley is located in San Bernardino County

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

Newspapers Published in Little Lake ...

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 10 newspapers that have been published in the area around Little Lake.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Little Lake, there are papers which were published within 28 miles [45.1 km]<5>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Little Lake.

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 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 Little Lake:

Cemeteries Near Little Lake ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Little Lake.

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.

If you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our selection of Genealogy Websites (see below).

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

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

  • Little Lake Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for the Little Lake Cemetery. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Little Lake Cemetery is located in the vicinity of Little Lake
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Little Lake Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2425875 <6>
  • Mt. Owens Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
  • Cottage Grove Cemetery
    (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
  • Onyx Indian Cemetery
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Onyx Indian Cemetery is located outside and to the southwest of Onyx.
    • The Onyx Indian Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Indian Cemetery
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Onyx Indian Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #8065 <6>
  • Desert Memorial Park
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Darwin Cemetery
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
  • McKellips Gravesite
    (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.

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

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

  • Freeman ‑ Historic
    (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Freeman
    • Freeman is located in Kern County
  • Onyx
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
  • Olancha
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
  • Weldon
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Darwin
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)

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

The official website for Inyo County: www.inyocounty.us/

The official website for State of California: https://www.ca.gov/

Footnotes ...

<1>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 Little Lake, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<2>An 'estimated' location is one where we have been given GPS coordinates, but are unable to verify the accuracy of those coordinates. That said, we have some confidence that we have placed the marker near the actual location. A typical reason for being unable to verify a location is that it might be on private property or maybe historic and gone without an obvious trace.
<3>The location has been supplied by the Geographic Names Information System - which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While these values should be definitive, we found that accuracy can vary and you should double-check the location if accuracy is required.
<4>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<5>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- Little Lake) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Little Lake. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 35.9370, Longitude: -117.9066    
<6>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.




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024