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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 Monolith (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 Monolith. 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 southwest 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 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 west 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.

Monolith is located in Kern 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 Kern County: Inyo, Kings, Los Angeles, Monterey, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Tulare & Ventura.

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

  • Kern County     (The home county of Monolith)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Monolith, with the one closest to Monolith listed first.
    • Summit
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
      • Summit is located in Kern County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Summit
    • Tehachapi
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Golden Hills
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
      • Golden Hills is located in Kern County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Golden Hills
    • Old Town
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
      • Old Town is located in Kern County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Old Town
    • Girard ‑ Historic
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Girard is located in Kern County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Girard
    • Woodford
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Woodford is located in Kern County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Woodford
    • Mojave
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
    • Keene
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
    • Reefer City ‑ Historic
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
      • Reefer City is located in Kern County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Reefer City
    • Gold Town ‑ Historic
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Gold Town is located in Kern County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gold Town
    • Bear Valley Springs
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
    • Stallion Springs
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
      • Stallion Springs is located in Kern County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stallion Springs
    • Actis Gardens ‑ Historic
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Actis Gardens is located in Kern County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Actis Gardens
  • Los Angeles County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Monolith, with the one closest to Monolith listed first.
    • Antelope Acres
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
      • Antelope Acres is located in Los Angeles County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Antelope Acres
    • Neenach
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
      • Neenach is located in Los Angeles County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Neenach
    • Del Sur
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
      • Del Sur is located in Los Angeles County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Del Sur
    • Lake Hughes
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)

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

Cemeteries Near Monolith ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Monolith.

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

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

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

  • Tehachapi Public Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tehachapi Public Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Tehachapi Public Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located outside and to the east of Tehachapi.
    • The Tehachapi Public Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Tehachapi Eastside Cemetery
    • Tehachapi Protestant Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2137484 <2>
  • Sand Canyon Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
  • James Foley Gravesite
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
  • Tehachapi Westside Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tehachapi Westside Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Tehachapi Westside Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located outside and to the northwest of Tehachapi.
    • The Tehachapi Westside Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Tehachapi Catholic Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2137488 <2>
  • Old Tehachapi Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
  • East Kern Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for East Kern Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the East Kern Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located in Mojave.
    • The East Kern Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Mojave Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #1990430 <2>
  • Cesar E. Chavez National Monument
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Fickert Family Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
  • Tejon Indian Settlement Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
  • Islamic Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the south)
  • Bakersfield National Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
  • Rankin Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northwest)
  • Continue List   (6 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.<4>

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

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

  • Tehachapi
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
  • Girard ‑ Historic
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Girard is located in Kern County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Girard
  • Mojave
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
  • Keene
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Rowen
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Rowen is located in Kern County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rowen
  • Bealville
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Bealville is located in Kern County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bealville
  • Caliente
    (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
  • Rosamond
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
  • Neenach
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Neenach is located in Los Angeles County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Neenach
  • Fairmont
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
    • Fairmont is located in Los Angeles County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fairmont
  • Havilah
    (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
    • Havilah is located in Kern County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Havilah

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

Newspapers Published in Monolith ...

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 46 newspapers that have been published in the area around Monolith.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Monolith, there are papers which were published within 28 miles [45.1 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Monolith.

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 helpful 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 Monolith:

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' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Monolith) 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 Monolith, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.