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A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
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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 Mission (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 Mission. 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.

Mission is located in Los Angeles 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 Los Angeles County: Kern, Orange, San Bernardino & Ventura.

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

  • Los Angeles County     (The home county of Mission)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Mission, with the one closest to Mission listed first.
    • Acton
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Paris
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
      • Paris is located in Los Angeles County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Paris
    • Agua Dulce
      (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Vincent
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
      • Vincent is located in Los Angeles County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Vincent
    • Leona Valley
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • Desert View Highlands
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
      • Desert View Highlands is located in Los Angeles County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Desert View Highlands
    • Harold
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
      • Harold is located in Los Angeles County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harold
    • Quartz Hill
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
    • Palmdale
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
      • Palmdale is located in Los Angeles County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Palmdale
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 150,498 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Palmdale <1>
    • Green Valley
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Green Valley is located in Los Angeles County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Green Valley
    • Del Sur
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
      • Del Sur is located in Los Angeles County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Del Sur
    • Lancaster
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Kern County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Mission, with the one closest to Mission listed first.
    • Rosamond
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
    • Actis Gardens ‑ Historic
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
      • Actis Gardens is located in Kern County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Actis Gardens
    • Actis
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
      • Actis is located in Kern County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Actis
      • Former names for Actis:
      • Gloster
      • Highberg
      • Rummington

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

Cemeteries Near Mission ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Mission.

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

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

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

  • Acton Community Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Acton Community Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Acton Community Cemetery is located outside and to the north of Acton.
  • Desert Lawn Memorial Park
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
  • Palmdale Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
  • Good Shepherd Catholic Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
  • Lancaster Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
  • Joshua Memorial Park
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Glen Haven Memorial Park
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Sholom Memorial Park
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Verdugo Hills Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
  • Eternal Valley Memorial Park
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
  • Pioneer Memorial Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
  • Eden Memorial Park
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Continue List   (15 more) ...
    • San Fernando Mission Cemetery
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for San Fernando Mission Cemetery
      • To give a relative sense of its location, the San Fernando Mission Cemetery is a very large cemetery that is located in Mission Hills.
      • The San Fernando Mission Cemetery has also been known as:
      • San Fernando Mission Catholic Cemetery
      • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #109027 <2>
    • Islamic Cemetery
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
    • Valhalla Memorial Park
      (23 miles [37 km] to the south)

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.<4>

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

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

  • Acton
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
  • Ravenna
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Ravenna is located in Los Angeles County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ravenna
  • Russ
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Russ is located in Los Angeles County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Russ
  • Vincent
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
    • Vincent is located in Los Angeles County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Vincent
  • Alpine ‑ Historic
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
    • Alpine is located in Los Angeles County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Alpine
  • Harold
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
    • Harold is located in Los Angeles County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harold
  • Palmdale
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Palmdale is located in Los Angeles County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Palmdale
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 150,498 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Palmdale <1>
  • Lang
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Lang is located in Los Angeles County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lang
  • Del Sur
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
    • Del Sur is located in Los Angeles County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Del Sur
  • Lancaster
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Honby
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Honby is located in Los Angeles County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Honby
  • Saugus
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
  • Continue List   (13 more) ...
    • Sunland
      (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
      • Sunland is located in Los Angeles County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sunland
    • Fairmont
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
      • Fairmont is located in Los Angeles County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fairmont
    • Newhall
      (19 miles [30.6 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 Mission. See our List of 1890's Communities around Mission.

Newspapers Published in Mission ...

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 Mission.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Mission, there are papers which were published within 27 miles [43.5 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Mission.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we 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 Mission:

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>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Mission) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<4>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 Mission, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.