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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 Molus (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 Molus. 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 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.

Molus is located in Monterey 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 Monterey County: Fresno, Kings, San Benito, San Luis Obispo & Santa Cruz.

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

  • Monterey County     (The home county of Molus)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Molus, with the one closest to Molus listed first.
    • Gonzales
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Soledad
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Chualar
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Greenfield
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Spreckels
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Carmel Valley Village
      (18 miles [29 km] to the west)
    • Serra Village
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
      • Serra Village is located in Monterey County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Serra Village
    • Ambler Park
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
      • Ambler Park is located in Monterey County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ambler Park
    • Salinas
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Boronda
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
      • Boronda is located in Monterey County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Boronda
    • Santa Rita
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
      • Santa Rita is located in Monterey County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Santa Rita
    • King City
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
  • San Benito County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Molus, with the one closest to Molus listed first.
    • Pinnacles
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
      • Pinnacles is located in San Benito County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pinnacles
    • San Benito
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
      • San Benito is located in San Benito County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for San Benito
    • Paicines
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
    • Bitterwater
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
      • Bitterwater is located in San Benito County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bitterwater
    • Tres Pinos
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
    • Ridgemark
      (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
      • Ridgemark is located in San Benito County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ridgemark
    • Hollister
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
    • San Juan Bautista
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)

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

Cemeteries Near Molus ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Molus.

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

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

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

  • Gonzales Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
  • Soledad Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
  • Greenfield Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
  • Willow Creek Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Paicines Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
  • Yamat Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
  • IOOF Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
  • Chinese Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chinese Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Chinese Cemetery is located in Salinas.
  • Monterey County Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
  • Bitterwater Cemetery
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bitterwater Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Bitterwater Cemetery is located outside and to the north of Bitterwater.
    • The Bitterwater Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Pine Hill Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #7858 <2>
  • King City Cemetery
    (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
  • Queen of Heaven Cemetery
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
  • Continue List   (12 more) ...
    • Mission Memorial Park
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
    • IOOF Cemetery
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for IOOF Cemetery
      • The IOOF Cemetery has also been known as:
      • IOOF Cemetery
      • Odd Fellows Cemetery
      • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #670325 <2>
    • Cherry Hill Cemetery
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)

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

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

  • Gonzales
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Soledad
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
  • Chualar
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Metz
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the southeast)
    • Metz is located in Monterey County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Metz
  • Spence
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Spence is located in Monterey County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spence
  • San Benito
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
    • San Benito is located in San Benito County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for San Benito
  • Paicines
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
  • Salinas
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
  • Natividad
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Natividad is located in Monterey County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Natividad
  • Bitterwater
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
    • Bitterwater is located in San Benito County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bitterwater
  • Tres Pinos
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
  • Santa Rita
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Santa Rita is located in Monterey County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Santa Rita
  • Continue List   (9 more) ...
    • King City
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
    • Blanco
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
      • Blanco is located in Monterey County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Blanco
    • Hollister
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)

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

Newspapers Published in Molus ...

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 56 newspapers that have been published in the area around Molus.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Molus, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Molus.

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 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 Molus:

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 things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Molus) 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 Molus, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.