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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 Mariana Ranchos (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 Mariana Ranchos. 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 northeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most 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.

Mariana Ranchos is located in San Bernardino 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 Bernardino County: La Paz (AZ), Mohave (AZ), Inyo, Kern, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside & Clark (NV).

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

  • San Bernardino County     (The home county of Mariana Ranchos)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Mariana Ranchos, with the one closest to Mariana Ranchos listed first.
    • The Mesa
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
      • The Mesa is located in San Bernardino County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for The Mesa
    • Apple Valley
      (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Hesperia
      (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
      • Hesperia is located in San Bernardino County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hesperia
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 96,911 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Hesperia <1>
    • Oak Hills
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • Victorville
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Mountain View Acres
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
      • Mountain View Acres is located in San Bernardino County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mountain View Acres
    • Mountain View
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
      • Mountain View is located in San Bernardino County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mountain View
    • The Village
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
      • The Village is located in San Bernardino County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for The Village
    • Cedar Glen
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
    • Blue Jay
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
    • Lake Arrowhead
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
    • Cedar Springs ‑ Historic
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Cedar Springs is located in San Bernardino County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cedar Springs
  • Los Angeles County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Mariana Ranchos, with the one closest to Mariana Ranchos listed first.
    • Big Pines
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
      • Big Pines is located in Los Angeles County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Big Pines
    • Mount Baldy
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Riverside County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Mariana Ranchos, with the one closest to Mariana Ranchos listed first.
    • Highgrove
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
      • Highgrove is located in Riverside County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Highgrove
    • Ordway
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
      • Ordway is located in Riverside County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ordway
    • Calimesa
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)

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

Cemeteries Near Mariana Ranchos ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Mariana Ranchos.

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 Mariana Ranchos - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

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

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

  • Hesperia
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Hesperia is located in San Bernardino County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hesperia
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 96,911 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Hesperia <1>
  • Oro Grande
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Arrowhead Springs
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
    • Arrowhead Springs is located in San Bernardino County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Arrowhead Springs
  • Cajon
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Cajon is located in San Bernardino County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cajon
  • San Bernardino
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
  • Grapeland ‑ Historic
    (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
    • Grapeland is located in San Bernardino County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grapeland
  • Rialto
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Rialto is located in San Bernardino County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rialto
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 104,132 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Rialto <1>
  • Victoria
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
    • Victoria is located in San Bernardino County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Victoria
  • Lugonia ‑ Historic
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
    • Lugonia is located in San Bernardino County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lugonia
  • Mentone
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
  • Colton
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
    • Colton is located in San Bernardino County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Colton
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 54,661 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Colton <1>
  • Mound City ‑ Historic
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
    • Mound City is located in San Bernardino County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mound City
  • Continue List   (4 more) ...
    • Redlands
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
      • Redlands is located in San Bernardino County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Redlands
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 72,271 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Redlands <1>
    • Eastbern ‑ Historic
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
      • Eastbern is located in San Bernardino County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eastbern
    • Etiwanda
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)

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

Newspapers Published in Mariana Ranchos ...

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 170 newspapers that have been published in the area around Mariana Ranchos.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Mariana Ranchos, there are papers which were published within 26 miles [41.8 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Mariana Ranchos.

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 professional and volunteer 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 Mariana Ranchos:

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 Mariana Ranchos, 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- Mariana Ranchos) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.